QC 2765 by Teazel

Excellent word, of the same insult level as Cad or Bounder. It has its origins in the Italian phrase monta in banco, which translates to “mount on a bench.” This referred to a quack or charlatan who would stand on a bench in public places, such as markets, to sell dubious medicines and attract a crowd with their boasts and sales pitches. Go to Westminster bridge for latest examples.

It’s really pretty much the same as a verse, or a stanza. Use it to sound more erudite when discussing Dante or Chaucer.

There are many football teams called United: 8 in the current English leagues. (Oxford, Peterborough, Rotherham, and Sutton being the ones you’re struggling with)

Backspace being a well-used key by typists and setters. Others to look out for include ALT and ESC. TAB and SHIFT can be clued in many other ways, so I’ve not seen those clued by “key”.

The “having” is a bit confusing here, as “having money” leads to words like “rich”, not words for money itself.

One of a couple of misdirected anagrams today, as it looks for all the world like (I GO RED)*, and those painters and stamp collectors have lots of weird colour words (sepia, cerise, ochre, umber) so  I spent a bit of time chasing down diogre, ogride etc.

A group of men, usually led by a naval officer, who were empowered to force men into naval service. Alarmingly common in Britain during the 17th and 18th centuries. They tried advertising with something like this:

“Brave lads sought for service aboard His Majesty’s ships! Face perilous seas, scurvy and the threat of enemy fire for meagre pay,  discipline is enforced by the lash. Two years minimum commitment”.

Or just bash them over the head and drag them onboard.

The setters seem alarmingly au fait with drug slang. E{cstasy} also makes a very frequent appearance.

The etymology is disputed, so we are waiting for a London Tour Guide to make something up.

My FOI.

Sometimes these very short anagrams can be hard to spot, I was looking for the word RURN to take the R{un} off from.

And yes, the Rouble is in trouble.

And this is the word I can never remember. I know it is the snow leopard, which is known as the “snow leopard” but for some reason in crosswords it is know as an Ounce.

I looked it up this time, it comes from the Old French word once, which was originally used for the Eurasian lynx. I will now promptly forget it until next time.

Nice cryptic definition.

I first read this as {Ston}E (finally) going in (THE MAIL)* and that’s the anagram I worked on.

Nice one, and my LOI. Famously, the oldest person in the Bible. He doesn’t do a lot else, apart from being old. Noah and Adam were also nonacentarians.

The phrase “as keen as mustard” can be traced back to the “association of mustard with excitement and flavour”. Life must have pretty boring in 1672 (first citation)

Another critical crossword word, its an old name for a barge, and there’s also Lighterman for those who row them.

The phrase “à la” comes from French, where it is shortened from “à la mode de,” meaning “in the style of”. It entered English in the late 1600s and since around 1800, “à la” appears with English words  (without the “mode” part, and latterly without the accent either) but retaining its original meaning of “in the style of”.

Yesterday when Mara used a pig clue, it could have been said to be “A La Oink”