Tackling a Demon can be like climbing a mountain and this was true of clue 7dn in the November BIG. ‘Mt McKinley’ didn’t even seem like a clue to some, but the clue referred to the fact that Mt McKinley has another name.

The highest mountain in North America is in Alaska and in 1896 was named in honour of President William McKinley. These were the days when Europeans thought they were making new discoveries, but of course such landmarks had been known to the locals for thousands of years. The Native American name for the peak was Denali meaning ‘The Great One’ and this is now recognised in the same way that Ayers Rock is also known as Uluru.

The next clue along, ‘Grump’ at 8dn, wanted MISERY not LIVERY or VILELY, and a couple more clues over at 12dn ‘Absorb’ needed INGEST not INJEST. The correct answer fitted with GOTHS (not JUTES) at 21ac for ‘Roman Empire invaders’.

For 69ac ‘Woollen overcoat cloth’ we expected KERSEY, a coarse fabric named after the southeast England town. Many of you put JERSEY, which is named after the largest of the Channel Isles. Jersey was originally made of wool and the island was famous for exporting its knitted goods. As you can have a jersey overcoat, we accepted this answer as well.

For the next clue across ‘Sycophantic group’ (71ac) CLAQUE and not CLIQUE was the answer. The latter made 57dn BOI but the ‘Fluffy stole’ was a BOA. Claque comes from the French for applaud or clap. A claque was originally a group of people hired to applaud so the audience would be encouraged to join in.

NOISOME sounds like it might be loud but in fact it is related to annoying and means offensive or foul. It was the answer to ‘Malodorous’ at 76ac. A few incorrect answers appeared here including NAUSATE, ABUSIVE and IRKSOME. The initial N was needed to fit with 73dn ‘Virus’ genetic material (1,1,1)’ or RNA (ribonucleic acid).

The ‘Nutty gelato’ at 78ac was CASSATA, not CASSAVA, a shrub with starchy roots used as a food staple in Central America. A couple of other incorrect answer here were PASSATA and MESSAVA, meaning 58dn was also incorrect. ‘Opportunist’ wanted CHANCER and not TRAPPER or CHALMER. There was a TV series called Chancer starring Clive Owen as conman Stephen Crane.
BÊTE noir is used to describe a ‘Dreaded thing’. It came into English from French a couple of hundred years ago. Perhaps your bête noir is a clue you don’t know the answer to! A few entries had BENE at 86dn.

A couple of vexatious vowels to mention -16ac was TINEA not TINIA, 26dn was SANGRIA not SANGREA and 82dn was ELAN not ELIN.

The Goliathon seemed to cause few problems this time. So well done to all our clever entrants!

Our judges did spot an INJUSTLY instead of UNJUSTLY at 60ac and a KNEEDED instead of KNEADED at 197ac – but that was about it for errors.

In the Bigcash the main thing to mention is clue 77ac. For ‘Magnify’ we wanted ENLARGE but also accepted ENHANCE.

A few entries had EMAIL for 88dn ‘Microsoft spreadsheet software’ but the answer was EXCEL. I agree this one was a bit tough but some who didn’t know it asked around their more computer-savvy friends or contacted a computer seller. Good to see you were all determined to not let the Demon OUTFOX you! (And not OUTFIX as some had at 81ac).