THE PRIZE CROSSWORD

There’s an amazing £1,500 prize for the first correct solution drawn at random in our general knowledge Prize Crossword. Entries must arrive by Friday, April 7 (photocopies not accepted). Today’s solution will appear next week and the winner’s name on Sunday, April 23. SEE BELOW THE GRID for details on how to enter.

Across

1 Trousers with very

wide legs (7,5)

8 The heroine of one of the books of the Apocrypha, who decapitated Holofernes to save her city (6)

11 A white water-soluble crystalline alcohol used as a sweetener (8)

12 Fruit with a hard rind

and juicy flesh (5)

13 The national style of

wrestling in Japan (4)

14 Ellen ---, English actress famous for her stage partnership with Henry

Irving in the late 19th Century (5)

15 A traditional

sea shanty (7,6)

17 The conduct of the relations of one state with another by peaceful means (9)

19 Small squares of pasta containing a savoury mixture of meat or cheese (7)

23 An ancient Greek

stringed instrument (4)

24 A 1930s biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland, used as a training aircraft (5,4)

25 and 39 19th-Century

English writer famous for the novel Black Beauty (4,6) 26 Spools or reels on which thread or yarn is wound (7)

28 Large marine diving duck with a long, slender hooked bill (9) 31 A verse form consisting of two rhyming lines in iambic pentameter (6,7)

34 Hubert ---, English composer best known for his choral song Jerusalem (5)

36 An island off the West coast of Scotland, in the Inner Hebrides (4)

37 The ---, principal distribution network for water, gas or electricity (5) 38 A security measure in which those inside a building or area are required to remain confined in it for a time (8) 39 See 25

40 A dangerous stretch of shallow water off the Deal coast in Kent (7,5)

Down

2 Three groups of volcanic islands in the North Atlantic; an autonomous region of Portugal (6)

3 Tropical plant widely cultivated for its eggshaped, typically dark purple fruit (9)

4 and 8 Catherine --- ---, Welsh actress who won an Oscar for the 2002 film musical Chicago (4-5)

5 Childe Harold’s ---, long narrative poem by Lord Byron (10)

6 Gary ---, musician who fronted the new wave band Tubeway Army (5)

7 A flat silver tray (6)

8 See 4 9 A large, loose-fitting buttonless upper garment worn especially in West Africa (7)

10 A cocktail consisting of gin, lemon juice, sugar and soda water (3,7)

16 A protein present in cereal grains, especially wheat (6)

18 Marie ---, Polish-born physicist and chemist; the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize (5) 20 The capital city

of Greece (6)

21 The side in a right-angled triangle that is opposite the right angle (10)

22 Henry Wadsworth ---, 19thCentury American poet whose works included The Song Of Hiawatha (10)

25 --- of Denmark, queen

consort to Edward VII (9)

27 A rich fabric woven with a raised design, often in gold or silver (7)

29 A concave curved surface between the wall and ceiling of a room (6)

30 Boasted one’s

superiority (6)

32 Cud-chewing mammal adapted to survive long periods without food or water in desert regions (5) 33 A city in southern Colombia; capital of the department of Narino (5)

35 A pictorial representation of a facility available on a computer system (4)