GENERAL KNOWLEDGE

Across

1. Heavy arrow or bolt used in a crossbow or arbalest (7)

5. Style of trousers patented in partnership by tailor Jacob Davis and a San Francisco goods store in 1873 (5)

8. Jo __, English comedian, actor and activist who made a cameo appearance in Neighbours in 2020 (5)

11. Longest river in the Iberian Peninsula (5)

12. According to the poem, a child born on this day is ‘fair and wise and good and gay’ (7)

13. Considerate, thoughtful (7)

14. Most populous country in Africa (7)

16. Widely-used acronym meaning ‘quickly’ (4)

18. Hindu god of the storm and wind (5)

19. All the ___ Men, 1976 political thriller about the Watergate scandal (10)

23. Person with absence of pigment in the skin and hair (6)

25. Alpine event added to the Olympics in 1936 (6)

28. Australian city which was the venue for the 1987 America’s Cup (9)

29. Civil and religious leader of a Muslim state (6)

32. Unit of measurement of the fineness of a thread or fibre (6)

33. Special type of long-focus lens (10)

36. Subdivision of a play (5)

37. Space Ranger character in the Toy Story film franchise (4)

39. The kind of love Lionel Richie and Diana Ross duetted about in a 1981 ballad (7)

42. 1958 Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring James Stewart and Kim Novak (7)

43. Species of common wild duck (7)

44. Decade in which Leon Trotsky and Mahatma Gandhi were both assassinated (7)

45. The __ Wessel song: official anthem of the Nazi party, named after a murdered stormtrooper (5)

46. The part of a bicycle frame in which the wheel revolves (5)

47. Self-imposed action of remorse (7)

Down

1. Position in gridiron football played by Joe Montana and Joe Namath (11)

2. Song released by American rock group Steve Miller Band in 1982 (11)

3. Sweet alcoholic beverage originating in the Mediterranean (7)

4. In cricket, a fielder or a fielder’s position, slightly behind the batsman (3,4)

5. Main character from the Friday the 13th film series (5)

6. African light wooden spear with an iron tip (7)

7. “Affliction comes to us, not to make us sad but __, not to make us sorry but wise”: H G Wells (5)

8. Word used as a form of address or title in parts of Africa (5)

9. One of the world’s oldest cities, its recorded history going back 3500 years (6)

10. Scotsman who invented the pneumatic tyre (6)

15. Water that has had its pH levels raised (7)

16. Continent with 48 countries (4)

17. Film, directed by Ben Affleck, which won the Best Picture Academy Award in 2012 (4)

20. Surname of fashion doll Barbie (7)

21. Friend of Antonio and Bassanio in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (7)

22. Italian jockey who has been British champion three times and won 19 British Classics, including the Derby twice (7)

24. Property available for purchase before it has been constructed (3-4)

26. Norse explorer thought to have been the first European to reach North America, in the late 990s (4,7)

27. Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife (5,6)

30. American subscription videoon-demand service founded in 2007 (4)

31. Type of multi-strand wire used in electronics to carry high frequency currents (4)

34. Cheese which originated in Somerset (7)

35. An attempt to hide a political or military event (5,2)

36. Nationality of tennis player Novak Djokovic (7)

37. Item of decorative jewellery designed to be fastened to clothing (6)

38. German composer who wrote music for Pirates of the Caribbean, Gladiator and Inception (6)

39. Israeli resort city on the Gulf of Aqaba (5)

40. Planet that has not cleared the area around its orbit (5)

41. Security devices that were used by the ancient Egyptians and Romans (5)