GENERAL KNOWLEDGE CROSSWORD

WIN A LUXURY CROSS PEN

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 Player that bears the number 15 on their shirt in rugby union (8)

5 Informal term for the Mafia or other criminal organisations (3,3)

10 Consisting of thin

layers or plates (7)

11 U.S. slang term for men,

from the Spanish (7)

12 Indian folk music instrument played by snake charmers in the subcontinent (5)

13 A container with separate parts for arranging things inside drawers or other spaces (9)

14 A person who always says that bad things are going to happen (4,8)

18 ____ Castle, any of several in Germany (e.g. Bavaria) whose name means ‘bright stone’ (12)

21 Raised platforms on which people give makeshift public speeches (9)

23 A customary or

habitual practice (5)

24 As part of a group or team, especially for a special purpose (2,5)

25 Town in Kent that lies on

the River Great Stour (7)

26 Country whose national flag is a yellow Nordic cross on a field of blue (6)

27 The system by which coats of arms etc. are devised and regulated (8)

DOWN

1 ____ VI, King of Spain who succeeded his father Juan Carlos I in 2014 (6)

2 Loch ____, the largest body

of water in Scotland (6)

3 A small, insect-eating marsupial that is native to Australia and New Guinea (9) 4 A colourless, odourless toxic gas given off by burning fuel, e.g. exhaust from cars (6,8)

6 Song by U.S. band The Killers including the lines ‘My sign is vital, My hands are cold’ (5)

7 A person who is skilled

in shooting (8)

8 Minimal standard set by the Bank of England for banks to lend to their customers (4,4) 9 1963 war film starring Steve McQueen as a U.S. prisoner of war (3,5,6)

15 A small, smooth-haired, large-eyed breed of dog that originates from Mexico (9)

16 Guitar pop band from Stockport whose 2022 album Ribbon Around The Bomb reached No. 1 (8)

17 An emergency take-off

by fighter aircraft (8)

19 ____ Macmillan, British prime minister who later became Earl of Stockton (6)

20 Stephen, Scottish snooker player born in 1969, nicknamed The Ice Man (6) 22 Ian, character in EastEnders played by Adam Woodyatt (5)