Factfinder’s crossword - The Scotsman 16/02/13

Across

1 Ruined abbey in Ayrshire, founded around 1150 (10)

6 Belgian city (pop about 90,000), to be the European Capital of Culture in 2015 (4)

10 A tranquilising drug, chlorpromazine (9)

11 A narrow furrow on the Moon or Mars (5)

12 Hebrew prophet from the 8th century BC (6)

13 Abraham’s first son, expelled into the desert after the birth of Isaac (7)

15 Moderately fast (mus) (9)

18 A first-magnitude star in Virgo (5)

19 Film directed by Andrzej Wajda about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising (1956) (5)

21 Having an eyelike spot or spots (9)

23 The river supposed to encircle the earth in Greek mythology (7)

24 An infusion of herbs or flowers (6)

27 River rising in the Massif Central and flowing 630 miles into the Bay of Biscay (5)

28 Relating to a mountainous area of Croatia on the Adriatic (9)

29 Former county town, believed tobe the birthplace of the medieval philosopher John Scotus (4)

30 Part of the mechanism of a piano (10)

Down

1 Salmon etc, that have just spawned (4)

2 Battle of __ , decisive engagement between Scots and Norse forces (1263) (5)

3 Citizen of southern European country, unified in 1861 (7)

4 An indentation or narrow pass (5)

5 A coralline seaweed (9)

7 A member of a royalist faction after the French Revolution (9)

8 Portable weighing machines (10)

9 Johannes __ (1833-97), German composer (6)

14 Provided the finance for a new enterprise (10)

16 A common yellow-flowered composite (9)

20 A common finch, feeding on flax seed (6)

22 Room for stowing goods in a ship (7)

24 City in Oklahoma (pop about 400,000), once regarded as the Oil Capital of the World (5)

25 Irregular fluctuations obscuring a transmitted electrical signal (5)

26 The most northerly inhabited island in Scotland (4)

Last week’s solution:

Across: 1 Callander, 6 Salsa, 9 Peebles, 10 Cribbed, 11 Rutin, 12 Esperanto, 13 Musit, 14 Accidence, 17 Cairngorm, 19 Sofia, 21 Ogden Nash, 24 Rheum, 26 Abalone, 27 Faraday, 28 Dwale, 29 East Timor.

Down: 1 Cupar, 2 Laertes, 3 Arlington, 4 Desperado, 5 Recap, 6 Skirr, 7 Lebanon, 8 Andromeda, 13 MacDonald, 15 Camshafts, 16 Desert Rat, #18 Indiana, 20 Fiefdom, 22 Niobe, 23 Abele, 25 Mayer.

Winner: Colin Matheson, Morpeth