CROSSWORD
A first prize of £30 and a bottle of Graham's award-winning, Late- Bottled Vintage Port for the first correct solution opened on 7 February, with two runners-up prizes of £20 (or, for UK solvers, the latest edition of The Chambers Dictionary — ring the word `Dictionary'). Entries to: Crossword 1447, The Spectator, 56 Doughty Street, London WCIN 2LL.
Six unclued lights (one hyphened) suggest a word obviously linked with the remaining two (one hyphened).
Name Address ACROSS
1 Charlie lives in Umbrian town (6) 10 Hobbyist reader after mint epis- tle (14, two words)
13 Conspiracy of silence from terriers after more barking (6) 16 Roman coins are buried inside ruins (5) 17 Free trip excludes Spain (3) 19 Countermark no Arab designed for fruit (9) 20 The son moves, keeping king in check (7) 23 Antedate forged order (8) 24 Measure short Scotch grave- digger knocked back (5) 25 Thrashes in grand houses Pa shuns (5) 27 Poem, with no beginning or end to it, unpolitely composed (8)
30 Namby-pamby to avoid issue (7) 33 Runny hooter, or one producing discharge? (9)
35 Character from The Caretaker (3) 37 Papers in the morning? Express first, then Sun (5) 38 Dozy agamoid male avoids movement (6) 39 Attractive, long-tongued lecturer quits (4) 40 Ballet star dancing with a nun is conversion-proof (14) DOWN
1 Noodle John stocked for Chinese? (6)
3 Brand new bars mid opera (5) 4 Knight in shared piece of armour 5 Mast's st's sound in boat (4) 6 Black Mischief I quote endlessly
7 P(7 aint sun to east of beautiful place (7)
9 Electronic device without beauty runs amok (8, two words, one hyphened) 12 Verse merited changes (7) 14 Perhaps Robespierre beheaded blunderer (8) 15 Watch corps de ballet for general appearance (12, two words) 18 Peeper cross with blanket hiding sunbather's stern (8, two words) 22 Lizard, quite exceptionally large, a Turk skinned (8) 26 Most of claret is reconstituted grapes (7) 28 Demonstrate old instruments in post-town (7) 29 Drinks second cobblers! (6) 31 Old coin has to corrode in Connecticut (6) 32 Bears climbing hill for meat loaf (6)
34 Honour always retained, perhaps (5) Solution to 1444:
Square number
In Columba's 100th Spectator puzzle, the number 100 is formed by nine een squares, each of which `CONTAINETH NOTHING' (15 26). The quotation is from the FIRST CENTURY (3 16) of THOMAS TRAHERNE (6A 25).
First prize: Val Haining, Lincolnshire. Runners-up: Susan Woodman, Hertfordshire; Donald Abbott, Birmingham.
Previous page
