BARE BONES

WIN A COLLINS ENGLISH DICTIONARY AND THESAURUS SET, AND A BRADFORD’S CROSSWORD SOLVER’S DICTIONARY

Our Bare Bones Crossword is unique because you have to complete the grid – numbers and squares – as well. We have inserted four black squares and four clue numbers to get you going. The crossword has a fourway symmetry: both top and bottom and left and right match, so you can fill in 12 more squares straight away.

Across

1 Blamed cocky ensemble for dark play (Two words)

9 Stick to African country – no borders

10 Twist wife to get some jewellery

11 Care about the area

12 Worry about horse in slaughter

14 Come on – wasted year to get wealth

16 Pale bin transported in old vessel

18 With cheese – that’s a good joke

21 Bishop, elderly but courageous

22 Game is big on improvement

24 Primate gets a kiss at the top

25 Mild inclination to design long steeple (Two words)

Down

2 Left port fully loaded

3 Bully making firm point

4 Trim a short bit of film

5 Gullible person starts to make ugly grimaces

6 Sewer initially damaged by bad weather

7 Changing a topic – car requires storage facility

8 First performed for

leading journalist

13 German leader acquires a French firearm

15 Basic arrangement includes vehicle

17 Promise to remove initial shelf

19 Fellow taking Frenchman to be a winner

20 Formerly in concert

22 Chewed on a section

23 Lubricant coming from boiler