Magnificent Monster

The Double Monster is one of your favourite contests, combining the fun of cracking the code in the Monster Starhunt, with the challenge of unravelling the clues in the Monster Colossus.
With so many clues to solve it is no surprise when a few errors appear.
At 33dn the clue ‘False doctrines’ needed HERESIES and not HERETICS, who are the people espousing the doctrines.
‘Concert venue, … Square Garden’ (83ac) needed MADISON and not MADISAN, which also made 118dn incorrect. ‘Became threadbare, … out’ was WORE no WARE.
Clue 121dn ‘Quaff’ needed GULP as the answer. Quaff is defined as ‘to drink heartily or in one draught’ so I’m sure you will agree that QUIP, ‘a sarcastic or cutting remark’, didn’t fit at all.
At 310dn ‘Hangers-on’ was RETINUE and not RESIDUE and 243dn ‘Claim’ was ASSERTION not ASCERTAIN.
Over in the Stinker at 72ac the ‘Short-stemmed clay pipe’ was a DUDEEN; a word to note if you couldn’t find it. Dudeen comes from a Gaelic word for pipe. ‘Torn asunder’ (74ac) was RIVEN. Quite a few incorrect answers were spotted here including RILED, RISEN and RIPER.
The word NEVE has been known to crop up in our puzzles, usually with a clue like ‘Glacial snow’. A NENE, on the other hand, is a ‘Hawaiian goose’ and was the answer to 283dn. As you can see the two are not interchangeable!
While once common on the islands, the nene is now the world’s rarest goose and is sadly threatened. Conservation and breeding programs have been successful in saving the goose from the brink of extinction.
The Greek island of Santorini is also known as THIRA or THERA, but not PHIRA, as a few of you had for clue 77ac. Interestingly, this tourist haven is the remains of a volcano that erupted 3600 years ago. The island is very steep and its whitewashed towns perched high on its rocky slopes make for picture postcard views.
Giant Cryptic clue 1dn ‘Honey, jacket will make things appear more attractive (5-4)’ needed SUGAR-COAT but a few instances of SUGAR-WRAP appeared. You can sugar-coat unpleasant news to lessen the negative impact. Politicians are good at sugar-coating policies they think will be unpopular.
A couple of entries had ADOLESCENCE instead of ADOLESCENTS for 49dn ‘Al does distribute money to youths’ (the CENTS are the money referred to). If so, you also had 72ac incorrect. ‘The kind of stockings anglers use?’ was FISHNET, of course!
In the Collection Contest at 307dn quite a few of you had a different answer to ours, with a completely different meaning. For ‘Downfall’ we wanted RUIN but many entries had RAIN. We checked our dictionaries and agreed that you were correct, so we accepted either answer.
However, at 111ac ‘Adversaries’ needed FOES. We couldn’t make FEES work.
‘Outshining’ at 125ac was ECLIPSING not ECLIPTING and ‘Cattle parasite’ (singular) at 209dn was TICK not TICS, which are muscle twitches.
We’ve put together another collection for your enjoyment. There’s hours of fun and plenty of brain-boosting exercise,
so dive in! Wishing you all a very happy 2012!