BLANKOUT

A crossword you construct yourself, adding the answers and the blanks as you go. The clues are in sets of one, two, three or four, guiding you to one, two, three or four words in each line (across) or column (down) indicated at the beginning of each set of clues. Each complete word has a blank at its beginning and end (unless it’s at the edge of the grid). Blanks are arranged symmetrically. To help you, we’ve given you a start with the answer to the clue on Line 9 – ‘Boon’ – which yields the word ‘Asset’. This must sit in the centre of the line to preserve the symmetry.

ACROSS

1 Disco’s flashing light; Irksome

3 Pair of earphones; Show

5 Laughably silly

6 Infant; Emanation around a holy head

7 Courtroom plea of elsewhere

8 Number at the top of a dartboard;

Trivial complaint

9 Boon

10 Tibetan Buddhist monk; Smile broadly

showing the teeth

11 Polluted air; Operatic solo

12 Male voice range; Band of criminals

13 Part of a jacket below the collar

14 Imaginary ideal country; At sea

15 Strong, tough

16 Wish, expectation; Mix

17 _ _ _ pea, processed vegetable

19 Beached; Put forward

21 Curl up in a soft place; Large wooded

tract of land

DOWN

A Scrubber for use inside jars

B Brownish-yellow pigment;

Colourless gas in air

C Carp-like fish; Dive on from above

D Disrespectfully; Beast of burden;

Carve in relief

F Draw water from (a radiator); Iranian holy man; To do with the kidneys

H Outshine; Garden bird

J Large, endangered African mammal; Effect two or more things have on each other; Renounce

L Wickedly playful; Silence by binding

the mouth; Muffle, suppress

M Ire; Around

N Small pebbles; Six-legged

invertebrate

O Bag for short trips