Flying through the clues
We were faced with a bit of a dilemma in the Bigcash. The usual English spelling for ‘Small handbill’ is FLYER but quite a few entries had FLIER. This is more common in American English, but as it is a variant spelling and does appear in some dictionaries, we had to accept it as correct as well at 10ac.
A couple of other acceptable alternatives should also be mentioned. For 56dn ‘Medicinal inhaler’ both VAPORIZER and VAPORISER were okay and at 93ac ‘Cruel wisecracks’ could be GIBES or JIBES.
‘Argue’ at 14dn was DEBATE not DEBASE and ‘Strain’ at 17dn needed EXERT not ELECT or ERECT.
For 24ac ‘Perplexed’ only BAFFLED was correct. BAFFLES was the wrong tense. Similarly, 28ac ‘Carved into shape’ needed HEWED and not HEWES. 29dn ‘Judges’ was DEEMS not SEEMS.
A couple of entries misspelt HUSTLE at 28dn as HUSSLE and one or two of you opted for JOCKIES instead of the correct JOCKEYS for 82dn, ‘Horse riders’. JOCKIES made 109ac incorrect as well.
The word jockey comes from the Scottish name Jock, a colloquial equivalent of John. As far back as the 16th century the name was used to mean ‘a boy or fellow’ (compare the English Jack the lad, Jack of all trades, Jack tar etc.). Like most words, the path it took to reach the usage we now know, is not clear, but Jock gained use as a word for horse dealers and trickster and jockey was adopted for a person who rode a horse in a race around 1670.
Over in The Demon both AMEND and EMEND were accepted for ‘Revise’ at 73ac. For 82dn ‘Street vendors’ we wanted PEDLARS but also had to accept the US spelling PEDLERS, which appears in dictionaries. Not surprisingly in this age of computers and global industries English and American spellings are getting closer and there is more overlap. Most so-called American spellings have a long history in English anyway, from the time before Samuel Johnson put together his prescriptive English dictionary in 1755 followed by Noah Webster’s American version in 1828.
Another unexpected alternative answer was spotted at 97dn. For ‘Stretcher’ we wanted LITTER but a few entries had LIFTER. We first considered this incorrect, but in checking various dictionaries, a lifter was defined as ‘a person or thing that lifts’ and so we had to agree that by our definition of what a clue is, we had to accept that answer as well.
We did not accept TONG in answer to 36dn ‘Chinese dynasty’. You needed TANG. TONG is a word but describes a Chinese secret society.
Your Goliathon entries were almost error-free. Congratulations!
The few small errors noticed by our judges included INCER at 13dn instead of the correct INCUR for ‘Become liable for’ and TEEMED at 106dn instead of TEAMED for ‘Combined forces, … up’.
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