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

Town in Central Scotland (pop about 10,000),

with a small 13th century cathedral (8)

5 Old Scots coin worth three pennies (6)

10 Drugs that relieve pain and induce

drowsiness, stupor, etc (9)

11 Grain storage towers, typically tall and

cylindrical (5)

12 Small boring tool (7)

13 A model of perfection or supreme excellence

(7)

14 Large white Danish breed of pig (8)

17 A highly-skilled or well-trained person (5)

19 A delicate thin silk network fabric (5)

21 A coach-driver or other traveller (8)

24 One of a series of small ropes acting as steps

in the rigging of a ship (7)

25 A mutual bargain or agreement (7)

27 Unfit, irrelevant or futile (5)

28 Inlay of metal, especially gold on steel, etc

(9)

29 A happy place of light and plenty (Exodus

X, 23 ) (6)

30 To fill with an overflowing abundance (8)

Down

1 A long river rising in Germany and flowing

1,770 miles into the Black Sea (6)

2 A two--act opera by Vincenzo Bellini (1831)

(5)

3 Elmore __ (1925 - 2013), New Orleans-born

novelist and short story writer (7)

4 A S _ (1883 - 1973), Forfar-born educator who

founded Summerhill (5)

6 An ancient kingdom and empire in

Mesopotamia (7)

7 Citizens of a city in northern Italy (pop 400,0000), with a university founded in 1088 (9)

8 Cinnamon-stone, a form of garnet (8)

9 An order of insects having the two pairs of

wings (8)

15 Pins and rods on the nave of a wheel on

which it turns (4-5)

16 Silly foolish people (coll) (8)

18 A piling protecting a bridge pier (8)

20 A book of the New Testament (7)

22 A Japanese guitar (7)

23 The goddess of wisdom in Greek mythology

(6)

25 A shinty stick (5)

26 The betel-nut genus of palms (5)