ShopBIG 216 Judge Sums Up
September 11, 2010 by The Judge
Filed under The Judge Sums Up
St Philibert’s Day
The Demon was a bit ‘Shadowy’ at 20ac. Well done if you filled in TENEBROUS – a few entries had TENEVROUS or TENETROUS. This obscure word for gloomy or dark also has the meaning of obscure.
The Frankish abbot, St Philibert, or Philbert, gave his name to the ‘Hazelnut’ and so the answer to 54ac was FILBERT not FIBBERT. The nuts are ready for eating in England around St Philibert’s feast day of August 20, hence the nut has his name.
With not many letters crossed from other words to help, 76ac proved tricky for some. The ‘Clay oven’ we needed was a TANDOOR.
One clue on at 77ac, the ‘Ballet tights’ were MAILLOT, but again a few misspellings appeared here. Not surprisingly this word, like many ballet words, comes from French. Maillot is also used for a ladies swimsuit and a jersey in cycle racing – you may have heard it during the annual Tour de France, where the maillot jaune or yellow jersey, is worn by the overall race leader.
A little further on at 90ac there was another cycling term. The ‘main pack of race cyclists’ is known as the PELOTON not PELATON.
Most of you got COTE for 102ac ‘Dove shelter’ but did you know that this word is closely related to cottage? A dovecote is a small cottage for doves.
The ‘Lunar trench’ at 110ac needed RILLE. This comes from the same German word from which we get the word ‘rill’ for a small stream.
A letter Q was needed at the crossing of 136ac and 122dn – a couple of entries had a C here. The ‘Region of SW France is AQUITAINE and the ‘Chef’s hat’ is a TOQUE.
At 123dn was a clue for those who have kept horses on other people’s land. AGIST was the answer required.
You may have heard of the colour name EAU DE NIL but did you know that it means literally ‘water of the Nile’? It is a pale yellowish green colour and the answer to 140ac. It sounds like something you might find on a sheet of paint colours along with Gumleaf, Asparagus and Sea Dream!
Karl Gauss was a German mathematician who had a unit of magnetic induction named after him – DEGAUSS was the answer to ‘Demagnetise’ at 14dn.
The ‘Indian starling’, a huge pest in many parts of Australia, was MYNAH not MINAH at 15dn. First brought into Australia to control insects they are now often called ‘flying rats’ and are second only to cane toads as the most hated feral animal.
At 35dn the composer we were looking for was Sir Edward ELGAR not EDGAR. Elgar, the son of a piano tuner from Worcester, is best known for his Pomp and Circumstance Marches, particularly No 1, from which Land of Hope and Glory comes. King Edward IV found the music stirring and Elgar asked AC Benson to write some lyrics. It was first performed in 1902 and is now often sung at sporting matches as well as the Last Night of the BBC Proms.
Finally for The Demon I am happy to say that at 48ac for ‘Chair wheels’ we took both CASTER and CASTOR.
In the Goliathon the ‘Spine part’ (44dn) was a DISC not DISK and the answer to ‘Not binding’ (55dn) was NULL not NILL. At 166dn ‘Thickly’ was DENSELY and not DENSLLY or DENSILY.
Not much to mention in the Bigcash – a couple of entries had EMOTE for 8dn but you needed EVOKE and at 109dn ‘Liveliness’ was PEP not ZEP. Pep apparently comes from the word pepper.
