GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Archaeologist noted for his excavations at Maiden Castle in Dorset and in India (8,7) 8 ____ Catton, character played by Alison Oliver in 2023 film Saltburn (7) 9 City in southwestern Russia that houses the Radishchev Art Museum (7) 10 Manuel, goalkeeper who made his debut for Germany in 2009 (5) 11 An actor’s entrance from the street to an area at the back of a theatre (5,4) 12 More given to signs of melancholy or sadness (7) 14 Japanese company launched in 1949 whose name means ‘three oceans’ (5) 15 ____ O’Hanlon, actor who played DI Jack Mooney in Death In Paradise (5) 17 Mormon family from Ogden in Utah who formed a 1970s pop group (7) 19 To overhaul the look and decor in a building (9) 22 A remark or speech made without previous preparation (2,3) 23 Female warriors believed by the ancient Greeks to live in Scythia (7) 24 Of little value or importance (7) 25 Keyboard musical instrument whose predecessor was the harmonium (10,5)

DOWN

1 Another name for an escalator (6,9) 2 Mary, pen name of a writer noted for her historical novels set in Greece (7) 3 To visit Europe by train using a pass giving unlimited travel (9) 4 Luke, actor who played Bard The Bowman in The Hobbit film trilogy (5) 5 Strange in a frightening and mysterious way (5) 6 A disappointment (3-4) 7 Rastafari song covered by Boney M. in 1978 (6,2,7) 9 ____ Murals, abstract paintings by Mark Rothko for a New York hotel (7) 13 Tickling the ____, informal term for ‘playing the piano’ (7) 14 Landlocked republic in Italy on the slopes of Mount Titano (3,6) 16 To let the air out of a tyre, balloon or similar object (7) 18 ____ point, desirable quality of a thing making it likely someone will want to buy it (7) 20 Rule the ____, phrase meaning ‘to be in complete control’ (5) 21 Colonel ____, the pompous elephant in Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book (5)

SOLUTION TOMORROW