GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

Play our accumulator game! Every day this week, solve the crossword to find the letter in the pink circle. On Friday, we’ll provide instructions to submit your five-letter word for your chance to win a luxury Cross pen. UK residents aged 18+, excl NI. Terms apply. Entries cost 50p.

ACROSS

1 Ideal or fitting apportioning of reward and punishment (6,7) 8 Matty, right back for Aston Villa FC who made his international debut for Poland in 2021 (4) 9 Launch vehicle created by Blue Origin that sent William Shatner into space in 2021 (3,7) 10 Luc, French director noted for his 1997 sci-fi film The Fifth Element (6) 11 An old term for the left

side at sea (8) 12 A set of fine grains, often saturated with water, that tend to suck down objects on its surface (9) 14 ____ Payne, One Direction band member whose debut solo single Strip That Down was released in 2017 (4) 15 Harry, fictional detective created by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo (4) 16 Tricky or sharp practice, especially in legal proceedings (9) 20 Brutal or uncivilized (8) 21 A bequest of personal

property (6) 23 A historical system of communication using birds to convey letters, dispatches and the like (6,4) 24 An appliance for removing

creases in clothes (4) 25 Scottish snooker player who came out of retirement at the 2021 World Championship to win his first match in nine years (7,6)

DOWN

1 An elevated tract of

fairly level land (7) 2 The prevailing character of

an institution or system (5) 3 A team or individual’s turn

at batting in cricket (7) 4 The most valuable or successful person or thing of a number (5,2,3,5) 5 ____ of influence, a region over which a nation exerts dominance (6) 6 A collapsing inwards (9) 7 A thin flap of skin that is stretched tight, also called the tympanic membrane (7) 13 A variety of green

sprouting broccoli (9) 15 Physically imposing men who are usually employed to protect a person or place (7) 17 Pseudonym of the French author noted for her novella Gigi published in 1944 (7) 18 The abode of a member of the Church of England clergy (7) 19 ____ feet, a disease caused by exposure to cold and wet suffered by World War One troops (6) 22 A medieval association of craftsmen or merchants, often wielding great power (5)

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