FACTFINDER’S CROSSWORD

ACROSS

7 The chief God of the ancient Germanic peoples (5)

8 City in Texas (pop about 900,000), established as an army outpost in 1849 (4,5)

10 Small city and seaport in central Italy on the Adriatic Sea (6)

11 Vine or cabbage leaves with a savoury stuffing (8)

12 A medium-hard Swiss cheese (8)

13 A jump from one skate to another in figure skating (4)

15 Take possession of (3-4)

17 Mexican riding-blankets (7)

20 A cutting tool with an arched blade set at right angles to the handle (4) 22 Provincial capital in South Africa (pop about 50,00), the site of a 217-day siege in the Second Boer War (8)

25 A light open one-seated cariage (8) 26 County town and former Royal burgh in the

East Coast (pop about 14,000) (6)

27 Book produced purely to make money for

the author (9)

28 A short musical composition used as an

exercise (5)

DOWN

1 Cutural region in the west of Ireland (pop about 32,00), with 20,000 - 24,000 Irish speakers (9)

2 Relating to a small country in west Africa (103,347 sq miles; pop 2 millon), independent since 1960 (8)

3 The circular parts or ornaments in jewellery (7)

4 Star-shaped (8)

5 A leading Roman lyric poet (65 -8 BC) (6) 6 A colourless volatile liquid used as an anaesthetic (5)

9 James __ (1736 -1819), Greenock-born mechanical engineer and inventor (4) 14 Sarah __ (1862 - 1922), Paris-born actress (9)

16 South African city (pop about 750,000), the country’s administrative capital (8) 18 A carbonate of calcium, iron, magnesia and manganese (8)

19 The SI units of electric current (7)

21 A major European river, rising in the Black Forest and flowing 1,770 miles into the Black Sea (6)

23 A small wind instrument (4)

24 A large supporting pillar of coal in a mine

(5)