CROSSWORD

No 1,580

£500 TO BE WON

TO ENTER Complete the crossword and count how many times the letter ‘A’ appears in the grid. Text YOU followed by a space, your answer (the number of ‘A’s) and name to 65700, eg, YOU 9 Sue Smith. Texts cost £1 plus your standard network rate. Or telephone 0905 652 2141 and leave your answer and details. Calls cost £1 plus your telephone company’s network access charge. Or post your entry to YOU Crossword No 1,580, PO Box 3451, Norwich NR7 7NR. Entries will be accepted until 11.59pm on Friday 16 February. One random winner from all correct entries will win £250 and five runners-up will win £50 each. If you enter after the closing date you will not be included but may still be charged. Phone and text helpline: 0808 272 0808. Winners will be notified by phone within 14 days. Solution in two weeks.

ACROSS

1 Superficiality (11) 7 George Gershwin’s lyricist brother (3) 9 European capital city (5) 10 Words that repeat the meaning already conveyed (9) 11 Warning of danger (3,5) 12 A 1 down (6) 14 The carrying out of a death sentence (9) 15 Financial punishments (5) 17 Get-up-and-go, pizzazz (5) 19 The masses, common people (to a snob) (3,6) 21 Truthful (6) 23 Team game played with a netted stick (8)

25 Late Italian tenor (surname) who was a former schoolteacher (9)

26 Wives and concubines living together (5) 27 Knight (3) 28 A 1 down (6,5)

DOWN

1 Character with extraordinary powers (9)

2 Shorten, condense (7)

3 Final success after a previous defeat (4,5)

4 Impervious to fluid (10)

5 Flightless birds associated with Rod Hull (4)

6 Epidermal pore in plant leaves (5) 7 A 1 down (4,3) 8 In Nazi ideology Caucasian of the Nordic type (5) 13 Suggestive, pointing to (10) 15 Performances at a nightclub (5,4) 16 A 1 down (6-3) 18 Mrs _______: 1942 Greer Garson title role (7) 20 A five-year term in Ancient Rome (7) 21 Ambitions, dreams, wishes (5) 22 Small mammal in a Shakespeare play title (5) 24 Mr Lee, who co-created 7 down and 16 down (4)