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 Put to inconvenience, etc (8)

5 The Heaven of Norse mythology (6)

9 Junior members of an ambassador's suite (8) 10 The official written standard of the

Norwegian language (6)

12 The Brazilian rabbit (6)

13 Peter Mark __ (1779 -1869), the compiler of a

comprehensive thesaurus (5)

16 The white poplar-trees (6)

17 Country in south-east Asia (pop about 15

million) (8)

20 The purple medicks (8)

21 Dexterous, ingenious, etc (6)

23 A recess in a wall (5)

25 A northern sea (135,000 sq miles) (6)

28 Police officers in the Republic of Ireland (6) 29 A sweet wine from south-west France (8) 30 The kea parrot genus (6)

31 A Provencal dish of salt fish (8)

Down

1 A light carriage (4)

2 A common genus of grasses (4)

3 A pirate operating in the West Indies in the

17th century (9)

4 Cathedral city in south-west England (pop

about 130,000) (6)

6 Tumult, turmoil, etc (5)

7 The final battle between good and evil (10)

8 A dabbler in art, science and literature, (10)

11 City in northern Italy (pop about 1.4 million), a

major centre of the fashion industry (5)

14 A type of machine-gun (7,3)

15 US agency sending volunteers abroad to

help developing countries (5,5)

18 A game played with shuttlecocks (9)

19 __ mate, plant species of the holly genus (5) 22 A first-magnitude star in Aquila (6)

24 The Muse of lyric poetry in Greek mythology

(5)

26 The killer-whale genus (4)

27 Early English historian (c 673 - 735), often

referred to as "venerable" (4)