KENKEN GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

It looks like sudoku, but it’s a true test of arithmetic rather than being a pattern puzzle. Each vertical and horizontal line has to contain the numbers 1-6 and the numbers can’t be repeated in any row or column.

The numbers in each heavily outlined set of squares, called cages, must produce the number in the top corner. For example, 9x means the numbers multiply to equal 9.

TIP: Numbers can be repeated in a cage, as long as they are not in the same line or row.

HARD

Across

7. Modern wine industry alternative to using a product taken from the tree Quercus suber (8)

9. “Nothing ___ except atoms and empty space; everything else is opinion”: Democritus (6)

10. A mass of soft or fluid matter solidified, such as blood (4)

11. Contest to decide which team or player will go through to the next round (10)

12. Boxing weight class between fly and feather (6)

14. Woman’s loose-fitting undergarment for the upper body (8)

15. Irish martial artist and boxer, first man to hold two UFC weight divisions at the same time (5,8)

17. New York borough with a 2020 estimated population of more than 2.5 million people (8)

19. Nurse in charge of a ward (6)

21. A liking for sugary foods (5,5)

23. Thick piece of timber, used in mining to hold up a roof (4)

24. ___ Spirit, comic play by Noel Coward (6)

25. Semi-soft Italian cheese with a strong aroma (8)

Down 1.

Sea monster in Greek mythology, mentioned in the second line of The Police song Wrapped Around Your Finger (6)

2. “I never said ‘I want to be alone’. I only said, “I want to be __ alone’. There is all the difference”: Greta Garbo (4)

3. South American waterfowl of the family Anhimidae, named for its raucous cry (8)

4. Person who summons spirits (6)

5. Measurements of the body’s most basic functions (5,5)

6. Pushchair for a young child (8)

8. Title given to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria (6,7)

13. Lifelong nickname of the Venetian painter Jacopi Robusti, 1518-1594 (10)

15. British author best known for his novels about Richard Sharpe, set during the Napoleonic Wars (8)

16. Title given to an Ethiopian prince

18. A bed carried on poles, used to transport a sick person (6)

20. Word meaning anything introduced to a country, i.e. not indigenous (6)

22. The den of an otter (4)

23. Small dogs, popular in the Imperial court, brought from China to Europe in the 16th Century (4)