Factfinder's crossword

Saturday's puzzle

Across

1 Historically, a quantity of land of the extent of 100 Scottish acres (10)

6 A Syrian cloth, of goat's or camel's hair (4)

10 A large venomous south European wolf-spider (9)

11 Laughing or merry (5)

12 Dorothy L __ (1893-1957), Oxford-born writer who created Lord Peter Wimsey (6)

13 Hand-spun, hand-woven cloth in India (7)

15 A fish with upward-looking eyes (4-5)

18 Caribbean country (10,718 sq miles; pop about 6.5 million), independent since 1804 (5)

19 A fruit that splits into dehiscent parts (5)

21 A group of eight prestigious universities in the eastern United States (3,6)

23 Sun-dried lean meat (7)

24 A double foot (pros) (6)

27 South American country (292,132 sq miles; pop about 13.5 million), independent since 1818 (5)

28 North-east town, once a major centre of locomotive production (9)

29 A small African sapindaceous tree, or its edible fruit (4)

30 A picture or diagram suggestive of solidity (10)

Down

1 An old card-game like nap (4)

2 A sheath formed of two stipules united round a stem (bot) (5)

3 A plant tuber credited with various tonic and medicinal properties (7)

4 The CGS unit of magnetic flux density (5)

5 William M __ (1811-63), Indian-born English novelist who wrote Vanity Fair (9)

7 A salmon parr (9)

8 A class of echinoderms comprising the starfishes (10)

9 A gap made in a fortification (6)

14 An evergreen plant of the birthwort family (10)

16 A sedimentary rock, formed from consolidated clay (9)

17 The spirit of the age (9)

20 A group of volcanic islands in the North Atlantic (6)

22 A strong grass grown in Spain, North Africa, etc (7)

24 A US state capital (pop about 28,000), settled in 1683 (5)

25 Albrecht __ (1471-1528), a German painter and engraver who painted Adam and Eve (1507) (5)

26 A head or bust on a square base, often double-faced (4)

Last week's solution:

Across: 1 Kirriemuir, 6 Graf, 10 Kenya, 11 Doncaster, 12 Citole, 13 Epigene, 15 Plover, 16 Adularia, 19 Noetians, 21 Parsec, 24 Herbert, 26 Anorak, 28 Sentinels, 29 Itala, 30 Smew, 31 Odelsthing.

Down: 1 Kaki, 2 Rantipole, 3 Isagoge, 4 Madder, 5 Innuendo, 7 Rathe, 8 Fer-de-lance, 9 Gavail, 14 Epenthesis, 17 Rastafari, 18 Knotweed, 20 Iberis, 22 Agonist, 23 Tarsal, 25 Ronde, 27 Sang.

Winner: Jean Gilchrist, Glasgow.