FACTFINDER’S CROSSWORD

Dear Reader,

As a result of the coronavirus pandemic we are suspending competition entries for all our prize crosswords. Puzzles will continue to appear as normal but no entries will be accepted or prizes given.

We hope to return to normal as soon as possible.

The solution to this week’s Factfinder crossword will appear next Saturday as usual.

Stay safe!

Joy Yates, Editorial Director

Across

1 Pervade, or saturate (8)

5 A sign of the zodiac (6)

9 Cupboards, once used for storing weapons

(8)

10 A popular resort (pop about 75,000), on the

French Riviera (6)

12 A large lake on the Rhine, called the

Bodensee in German (9)

13 Remove faults or blemishes from (5)

14 Region of Eastern France (3,280 sq miles; pop about 1.9 million), restored to the country in 1945 (6)

17 A New Zealand tree with white wood (5)

20 Large town in northern Scotland (pop about

25,000), a former royal burgh (5)

21 One of the three holiest cities of Islam (pop

about 1.5 million) (6)

24 Broaches for roasting meat (5)

25 Rare, exotic or obscure (9)

28 A colloquial term for money (6)

29 The daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta in

Greek mythology (8)

30 In truth or actually (6)

31 An utterly debauched character (8)

Down

1 A yellow-spotted flatfish (6)

2 Italian resort on the Adriatic (pop about

150,0000 (6)

3 T S __ (1888 - 1965), Saint Louis-born poet

who wrote The Waste Land (5)

4 Small articles of wood, especially eating and

drinking vessels (5)

6 The leader of the Greeks in the Trojan war (9) 7 Units of luminous intensity (8)

8 A purply eruption on the nose, caused by

tippling (4-4)

11 An epic poem by Virgil (6)

15 Literary language based on old Norwegian

dialects (9)

16 Capital city in eastern Africa (pop 1 million),

at a height of 7,628 feet (6)

18 Pertaining to a steel-making process (8)

19 Roman general (40 - 93 AD), appointed

governor of Britain in 78 AD (8)

22A small groove (6)

23 Old spelling of a mace-bearer in Oxford and

Cambridge (6)

26 Small island in the Inner Hebrides, left to the

National Trust for Scotland in 1981 (5)

27 To cut off as a syllable (5)