FACTFINDER’S CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 A sweet-flavoured fruit with smooth green or orange rind (8,5) 10 Irrelevant and futile (5) 11 A fine variety of apple (9) 12 A genus of shrubby plants native to China and Japan (9) 13 A colourless, odourless inert gas (5) 14 A lady’s-maid (1 Samuel, xxv) (7) 16 The Muse of lyric poetry and music in Greek mythology (7) 18 People who use reproachful language (7) 20 A leafy plant used especially as flavouring (3-4) 21 Lake __ , a large, shallow alkali stretch of water in the US north-west (5) 23 Birds of the genus Sturnus (9) 25 One who makes things clear and easily understood (9) 26 A low heavy truck or trolley (5) 27 An exhibition presenting the life’s work of an artist, etc (13)

DOWN

2 A mountain nymph in Greek mythology (5) 3 A horse’s attempt to throw its rider (9) 4 Large Irish county (1,865 sq miles; pop about 160,000) (7) 5 Small town in south-east England (pop 11,000), the birthplace of Alfred the Great (7) 6 One of the moons of Jupiter (5) 7 Eat to excess (9) 8 Small village in Argyll, a popular sailing and yachting centre (13) 9 Short hand-guns with a wide bore (13) 15 Travel from place to place, especially for the purpose of judging, preaching, etc (9) 17 A childish term for a small spiny-backed river-fish (9) 19 Yellowish-green finches (7) 20 A treeless plain, naturally grass-covered (7) 22 Small city in western Germany (pop about 115,000), on the Moselle (5) 24 Rocky desert and semidesert in southern Israel (5)