Factfinder Crossword - The Scotsman 24/12/2011

Across

1 Ruined religious establishment in Fife, founded as a priory in 1178 (8,5)

10 The commander of a troop of Indian cavalry (9)

11 City in northern France (pop about 110,000), where Joan of Arc was tried and burnt at the stake in 1431 (5)

12 The car of an airship, or a hot-air balloon (7)

13 Marked with spots and streaks (7)

14 Town in eastern Pennsylvania (pop about 27,000), north of Philadelphia (6)

16 Turned up or forward (biol) (8)

18 The genealogy of a group or system of gods (8)

20 A space completely filled with matter (6)

23 The larva of a frog or toad (7)

24 James Young __ (1811-70), Bathgate-born obstetrician who was a pioneer of anaesthesia (7)

26 An old Japanese gold coin (5)

27 A follower of an ancient Greek philosopher (c427-347 BC) (9)

28 Musical instruments in which the sound is produced by striking bars of varying pitch (13)

Down

2 Henrik __ (1828 - 1904), a Norwegian dramatist who wrote Hedda Gabler (1890) (5)

3 A game in which a two-headed top is tossed on a string attached to two sticks (7)

4 A unit of circular measure (6)

5 A slow Spanish dance, or dance-tune (8)

6 A defensive stockade or palisade (7)

7 Relating to a South American country (109,484 sq miles; pop about 15 million), fully independent since 1830 (9)

8 Cell division without mitosis (biol) (13)

9 Having no defined or fixed value (13)

15 A large male duck of the Tadorna genus (9)

17 Organisation directed to co-operation in fighting crime, based in Lyon (8)

19 Country in south-east Europe (26,905 sq miles; pop about 4.5 million), independent since 1991 (7)

21 River of southern Africa, rising in the Transvaal, and flowing 1,100 miles into the Indian Ocean (7)

22 The side of the ditch next to the rampart (fort) (6)

25 A stake or post for fencing (5)

Last week’s solution:

Across: 1 Pittenweem, 6 Marc, 10 Caspian, 11 Hungary, 12 Buttress, 17 Paterson, 19 Sesterce, 21 Parsec, 24 Milan, 25 Brueghel, 28 Tangelo, 29 Tie-beam, 30 Ross, 31 Astringent.

Down: 1 Pica, 2 Testudo, 3 Eliot, 4 Winter, 5 Ephesian, 7 Atabals, 8 Cryogenics, 9 Anathema, 14 Opisometer, 16 Oleander, 18 Scabruis, 20 Silenus, 22 Stelene, 23 Hurter, 26 Glenn, 27 Smut.

17 Dec winner: Angus Binnie, Longniddry