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 A lively Neapolitan dance (10)

6 Relating to the ear (4)

10 One of the small ropes forming steps of the

rigging of ships (7)

11 Yuri __ (1934 - 68), Soviet cosmonaut, the

first person to go into outer space (7)

12 A kind of falcon (8)

13 Disinclined to move or act (5)

15 Town in north-west England (pop 95,000),

founded in the 9th century (6)

17 Citizen of a country in east Africa (45,400 sq miles; pop 3.5 million), independent since 1993 (8)

19 A kind of muslin like jaconet (8)

21 Small country in south-east Asia (2,226 sq miles; pop 500,000), independent since 1983 (6)

24 Shakespearean term for to pay, or to

maintain (5)

25 A non-metrical hymn (8)

28 A flat type of tortilla in Mexican cuisine (7) 29 Made undue claims (7)

30 City in northern India (pop about 1.6 million),

the site of the Taj Mahal (4)

31 A herbaceous perennial, flowering from

February to April (6,4)

Down

1 A small mountain lake (4)

2 Small, land-locked English county in the East

Midlands (147 sq miles; pop 40,000 (7)

3 Resort town in the Highland region (pop

about 10,000), an ancient fishing port (5)

4 A portico, hall or vestibule (6)

5 A cord for tying the blood-vessels, etc (med)

((8)

7 Of the world, or mundane (7)

8 Suburb of Cape Town (pop about 13,0000,

famed for its wine (10)

9 Having brief brilliant flashes of light (8)

14 Plant of the diverse spurge family, indigenous to Mexico and Central America (10)

16 Citizen of a region in north-east France

(3,208 sq miles; pop about 2 million) (8)

18 Obsolete term for private room (8)

20 A cutting or foretooth (7)

22 A genus of water-lilies (7)

23 Absolutely or truly (2,4)

26 Henrik __ (1828 -1906), Norwegian playwright who wrote A Doll's House (1879) (5)

27 A cutting tool with an arched blade (4)