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 book of maxims in the Old Testament (8)

5 Obsolete term for to throw or cast down (6)

9 Burlesque, or a false impression (8)

10 Relating to a region in central Italy (8,900 sq

miles; pop about 4 million) (6)

12 Dorothy L __ (1893 - 1957), Oxford-born

crime writer and poet (6)

13 Small city in Kansas (pop about 28,000),

incorporated in 1875 (5)

16 Any hydro-carbon of the ethylene series (6) 17 Piet __ (1872 - 1944), Dutch painter, a pioneer

in abstract art (8)

20 Citizen of a country in north-east Africa

(728, 215 sq miles; pop about 45 million) (8) 21 Small hills or mounds (6)

23 Town in central Scotland (pop about 15,000,

once a thriving port (5)

25 A violet-blue colour (6)

28 An Arctic plain with permanently frozen

subsoil (6)

29 Comic opera by Gilbert and Sullivan (1882)

(8)

30 The Zoroastrian holy Scriptures (6)

31 Citizen of historic capital city in southern

Europe (pop about 3 million (8)

Down 1

William __ (1759 - 1806), Tory politician who

became Prime Minister in 1783 (4)

2 Sultanate in western Asia (119,500 sq miles;

pop about 5 million), on the Persian Gulf (4) 3 Height above sea level (9)

4 Samuel __ (1835 - 1902), English novelist and

critic who wrote Erewhon (1872) (6)

6 Mark or form the limit of (5)

7 A French squadron of aircraft (10)

8 Sensitivity to pain or soreness (10)

11 A man's broad silk necktie (5)

14 A South African dessert wine (10)

15 The yellow viper of tropical America (3-2-5) 18 To blacken a person's reputation (9)

19 A savoury jelly made with meat stock (5)

22 Dexterous, ingenious, etc (6)

24 An evil demon in Arabian mythology (5)

26 A small case for holding small articles (4)

27 A long-winged aquatic bird, allied to the

gulls (4)