BIG MONDAY CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 In medieval Europe, the night-time ringing of a bell as a signal to extinguish fires and go to bed (6)
4 Specialist robbery and violent crime unit formed at Scotland Yard by DCI Frederick Wensley in 1918 (6,5)
9 Russian-born US star of the first full-length
talking film, 1927’s The Jazz Singer (2,6)
10 German rock band whose ‘Wind of Change’ (1990) is the world’s best-selling single by a German artist (9)
11 Dull brownish-yellow cotton or wool fabric
whose name means ‘dusty’ in Urdu (5)
12 Of or denoting the ocean region between the continental shelf and the abyssal zone, typically between 200 and 2000 metres deep (7)
14 Unfermented soy bean curd, recorded as a foodstuff since the time of China’s Han dynasty (206-220 BC) (4)
17 and 31 Prime minister of Spain who succeeded
Mariano Rajoy on 2 June 2018 (5,7)
18 Of a horse, having a reddish, brown or black
coat speckled with white hairs (4)
19 Sequence of play in American football that begins when the ball is passed backward by the centre (snapped) (9)
21 Passage through which eggs are conveyed from an ovary, in mammals typically called the Fallopian tube (7)
22 In German folklore, a malevolent elf or goblin of the forest who lures people, especially children, to their deaths (3-4)
25 ‘Dancing Clown’ manifested by the titular
antagonist of the 1986 Stephen King novel It (9)
27 City of northern Europe that hosted the sixth
Winter Olympics in February 1952 (4)
28 Viking rover who founded the Duchy of Normandy in 911 AD; identified by some historians as the Ganger (Walker) (5)
29 Imperial unit of capacity equal to 34.67 cubic
inches or 568 millilitres (4)
31 See 17
33 Jan ___ (1870-1950), South African statesman who helped negotiate the charter of the League of Nations in 1918 (5)
36 Two-dimensional geometric figure having eleven sides and internal angles of about 147.27° (9)
37 Intermediate shade in a photograph, painting
etc, neither very dark nor very bright (8) 38 Dealer in small articles such as buttons, zips and ribbons used for sewing, dressmaking etc. (11)
39 Old Testament prophet who, along with Zadok the priest, anointed Solomon king of Israel (1 Kings 1:32-45) (6)
DOWN
1 1984 comedy crime film starring Donald
Sutherland and Sean Penn (8)
2 ‘I am a tainted wether of the ___’ (Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice (1596-8) (5)
3 Any social winged insect of the family Vespidae,
especially the common Vespula vulgaris (4)
4 Henry ___, Oscar winning star of the 1981
family drama film On Golden Pond (5)
5 Welsh drinking toast equivalent to the English
cheers; literally, ‘good health’ (6,2)
6 In palmistry, a semi-circular line extending from between the first and second fingers to between the third and fourth (6,2,5)
7 Professional shark hunter played by Robert
Shaw in the 1975 thriller film Jaws (5)
8 US actress whose roles include Altaira Morbius in the classic 1956 sci-fi film Forbidden Planet (4,7)
13 Long thin wick or spill coated with wax for
transferring a flame (5)
15 French dramatist and poet best-known for the
1897 verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac (6,7)
16 Chinese tree, also known as the maidenhair tree, whose leaf extract is thought to aid the brain, mood and memory (6)
18 19th-century Bohemian folk dance similar to a
waltz or polka; from Czech rejdovák (‘whirl’) (6)
20 Official name of 27 Across from 1624 to
1877 (11)
23 Unit of geological time forming a subdivision of
a period and divided into ages (5)
24 Alien race of the Star Trek franchise native to the
planet Qo’noS (8)
26 Dog belonging to Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown in the
Back to the Future film trilogy (1985-90) (8)
30 Monetary unit of Botswana worth one hundredth
of a pula (5)
32 Any of a class of volatile liquid compounds in which an oxygen atom is bonded to two alkyl or aryl groups, commonly used as solvents (5) Short choral composition typically having a religious theme; from French, ‘little word’ (5) Blank disc of metal on which a design is stamped to produce a coin; a planchet (4) 34 35