GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

WIN A LUXURY CROSS PEN

PLAY our accumulator game! Every day this week, solve the crossword to find the letter in the pink circle. On Friday, we’ll provide instructions to submit your five-letter word for your chance to win a luxury Cross pen. UK residents aged 18+, excl NI. Terms apply. Entries cost 50p.

ACROSS

1 2000 horror film starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer (4,4,7) 8 Genus of aquatic plants including the sacred lotus (7) 9 Patron saint of police officers and military personnel (7) 10 The ____ Countdown, song by Swedish rock band Europe released in 1986 (5) 11 English county cricket side whose principal home ground is Headingley (9) 12 A method of calculating by symbols in mathematics (7) 14 ____ The Hedgehog, 2020 computer animated film based on a video game franchise (5) 15 A pin or shaft on which anything turns (5) 17 Nicholas, U.S. actor who played Xander Harris in the TV series Buffy The Vampire Slayer (7) 19 One who specialises professionally in manipulating bones and massage (9) 22 A set of lines and spaces on which music is printed and written (5) 23 Material burnt to give fragrant fumes in religious rites (7) 24 To copy or mimic (7) 25 22-mile-long highway in Los Angeles that stretches from the central downtown area to the Pacific Ocean (6,9)

DOWN

1 Sudden and unexpected gains made by a company due to events not directly related to it (8,7) 2 U.S. city that hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics (7) 3 The glare of publicity whose name derives from an old type of theatrical stage illumination (9) 4 Hard, black wood capable of being finely polished (5) 5 Stevie, U.S. singer/songwriter noted for her work with the band Fleetwood Mac (5) 6 The ____ Nights, collection of ancient tales told by the sultana Scheherazade (7) 7 Narrator and main character in J.D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher In The Rye (6,9) 9 Seaside town in Kent in which the Turner Contemporary gallery opened in 2011 (7) 13 Charles, English mathematician born in 1791 credited with having conceived the first automatic digital computer (7) 14 A criticism made in passing that is incidental to the main topic (9) 16 ____ City, seat of the Roman Catholic Church on the west bank of the River Tiber (7) 18 ____ Gorge, U.S.-Canadian river valley crossed on tightrope by Charles Blondin in 1859 (7) 20 Another name for the snow leopard (5) 21 A Japanese poem, usually consisting of three lines and seventeen syllables (5) SOLUTION TOMORROW