Test your knowledge withour bumper holiday pages
ACROSS
1 Bodies (7) 4 Green algae found on shorelines worldwide (3,7) 9 Quickest (7) 13 Nocturnal insect (4) 14 Irony or sarcasm (6) 15 Repeat something mindlessly (6) 16 Sponge cake flavoured with lemon (7) 19 Straight up, the truth (colloq) (2,3,5) 20 Punctual (2,3,3) 21 In golf, one over par (5) 24 Classical piece for soloist (6) 25 Believe without proof (6) 27 Clever people (colloq) (10) 30 Bird on the $10 note (4,4) 31 Distorted, biased (6) 32 Former tennis No.1, ‘Pistol Pete’ (7) 35 US term for violent windstorms (8) 37 Former Soviet republic, capital Kiev (7) 38 Motherly (8) 41 Cuts in half (7) 45 Girl’s name in a 1982 Dexy’s Midnight Runners hit (6) 47 Breed of blue-eyed cat which has a colourpoint coat (7) 48 Cold-blooded creatures (8) 50 Yuletide (4) 52 Famous Vatican chapel (7) 55 Major ferry port in northern France (6) 57 Gift celebrating 35 years of marriage (5) 58 Measure equal to one-eighth of a gallon (3,4) 60 By way of (3) 61 Type of drum (6) 62 Indents in a coastline (4) 64 Gather (8) 66 Own (7) 70 Paste (4) 71 Star sign (3) 73 Prepared area on a golf course (7) 75 Troops (8) 78 Japanese noodle soup dish (5) 79 Brightest star in the sky (6) 80 Break (5) 82 Gold measurement (5) 84 Cancel out (7) 88 Slow-moving ice mass (7) 89 Gifted (7) 90 Statement of subjects covered by a course of teaching (8) 94 Despatched (4) 96 Elevate (5) 99 Women (7) 103 1889 van Gogh painting of flowers (6) 106 Tall North American plant found in many NZ gardens (5) 108 Pole used in highland games (5) 109 Choose (6) 110 Dishonest (10) 112 County of NW Ireland (7) 113 Roman governor who washed his hands of Christ (6) 114 Wary (8) 118 Recognition, tributes (9) 120 Skirt-like garment of the Malay archipelago and some Pacific islands (6) 121 Insurgents (6) 124 Detested (5) 125 Long, flexible arm of an octopus (8) 128 Trees of the family Bignoniaceae, widely grown in warmer areas of New Zealand (10) 133 Threatens (7) 134 Soak up (6) 135 Type of long green bean (6) 136 Marge and Homer’s daughter (4) 137 Author of The Chronicles of Narnia (1,1,5) 138 Having no identifiable ability (10) 139 Bank clerks (7)
DOWN
1 Brief film appearance by a well-known actor (5) 2 Turning (8) 3 Weighing apparatus (6) 4 Mud, ooze (5) 5 Beers (4) 6 Staff (9) 7 Fortune telling cards (5) 8 Work together (9) 10 Sea captain in Moby Dick (4) 11 Person who wears the Ring of the Fisherman (3,4) 12 One of England’s home counties (6) 17 Machine which helps a patient to breathe (10) 18 Discovered (5) 22 Perform for money on the streets (4) 23 American state, capital Des Moines (4) 24 Sign of illness (7) 26 Former French coin (3) 27 Insect of genus Apis (3) 28 Fruit with the New Zealand variety Taylor’s Gold (4) 29 Hard glassy minerals, usually red, yellow or green, used as gemstones (6) 32 Asleep (10) 33 Tranquillity (5) 34 Facility which manufactures coins and banknotes (4) 36 Bars (7) 39 Nimble (5) 40 Upright (5) 42 Keeps apart, or separate (10) 43 Dog which has a black tongue (4) 44 City on the Mississippi (2,5) 46 Elephant who said goodbye to the circus (6) 49 21st letter of the Greek alphabet (3) 51 Direct a ship’s path (8) 52 Short periods of rain (7) 53 Multi-coloured confectionery made by Rowntrees since 1937 (7) 54 Italian volcano (4) 56 Enlist in the army (4,2) 59 Assignments (5) 60 Spoken (6) 63 South American currency (4) 64 Breed of Scottish cattle that can be either black or red (5) 65 Pantry (8) 67 Egg shaped (4) 68 Outdo (7) 69 Drenched (6) 72 Head of a cereal plant (3) 74 Symbolic (10) 76 Wooden shoe (5) 77 __ Mason, fictional lawyer (5) 79 Lurch (7) 81 Weak or effeminate (6) 83 Zeppelin (7) 85 Number one in Italian (3) 86 One of the world’s highest cities (5) 87 Car for hire (4) 91 First name of Superman’s girlfriend (4) 92 Son of Adam and Eve (4) 93 Large blade for cutting grass (6) 94 Pouch (3) 95 Bread eaten with an Indian meal (4) 97 Banks Peninsula township (6) 98 Edible root vegetable grown as feed for livestock (5) 99 Prohibit (6) 100 Giant wine bottle equal to eight normal bottles (10) 101 Departed (4) 102 Dire Straits single: ____ of Swing (7) 104 Mentally or physically infirm with old age (6) 105 One of the green parts which form the calyx of a flower (5) 107 Largest island in the Caribbean (4) 111 Conductor’s stick (5) 114 Centre (4) 115 Large vase (3) 116 Bet (5) 117 Time by which something must be done (8) 119 Reduce to ashes (7) 120 Fizzy drink or powder (7) 122 Hard, ring-shaped rolls (6) 123 Document recording an inventor’s rights (6) 126 Leg bone (5) 127 Part of a garlic bulb (5) 129 Female relatives (5) 130 Evidence of injuries (5) 131 Partly (4) 132 Soft, creamy cheese (4)