Factfinder’s crossword - The Scotsman, 20/10/12

By DONALD ROSS
Published on 20/10/2012 00:00

This week’s puzzle...

Across

1 The “Muckle Toon”, the birthplace of Hugh MacDiarmid (8)

5 Any of a group of virus diseases affecting the skin (often with blisters) (6)

10 Establishing a standard, especially of behaviour (9)

11 King of Judea (c74-4 BC) (5)

12 Large county town in southern England (pop more than 125,000), the site of a ruined 12th-century Cluniac abbey (7)

13 Island nation in the South Pacific (5,716 sq miles; pop about 250,000), independent since 1980 (7)

14 Former name of the hedge-sparrow genus (8)

17 A timber measure, a cubic metre (5)

19 Ruined Borders abbey, founded in 1128 by David I (5)

21 Restrained, indicating a sudden slowing-down of tempo (mus) (8)

24 A plant body not differentiated into leaf, stem and root (7)

25 A unit of relative loudness (7)

27 German North Sea port and shipbuilding centre (pop about 50,000) (5)

28 A mild, blue, full-fat soft cheese (9)

29 Fish of the sea-bream genus (6)

30 Opaque watercolours (7)

DOWN

1 Ancient royal burgh and former county town, a Covenanting centre in the 17th century (6)

2 A square for measuring right angles (5)

3 Translucent, colourless variety of opal (7)

4 Breed of hardy beef cattle (5)

6 A sea urchin (7)

7 Small long-tailed parrot of various kinds (9)

8 A member of an old Jewish party of traditionalists (8)

9 Cotton with silk pile (8)

15 Perthshire town, which featured as Tannochbrae in the television series Dr Finlay’s Casebook (9)

16 A machine for drawing, twisting and winding fibres (8)

18 Fishes by drawing the bait over the surface (8)

20 City in Florida (pop about 2 million), a popular winter resort (7)

22 Capital city of southern Europe (pop about 250,000), divided since 1974 (7)

23 Pieces of low, moist ground (6)

25 Animated Walt Disney film (1941) (5)

26 William __ (1829-1912), the founder of the Salvation Army (5)

Last week’s solution:

Across: 7 Canna, 8 Henderson, 10 Brooke, 11 Billhook, 12 Courante, 13 Itma, 15 Reunion, 17 Vermeer, 20 Fohn, 22 Lysander, 25 Cinnabar, 26 Apache, 27 Jefferson, 28 Macaw.

Down: 1 Cabriolet, 2 Andorran, 3 Pebbles, 4 Adelaide, 5 Arnhem, 6 Gogol, 9 Kern, 14 Peterhead, 16 Osnaburg, 18 Mindanao, 19 Clarion, 21 Omnify, 23 Scad, 24 Niger.