Times 27880 – horses for courses

76 comments on “Times 27880 – horses for courses”

1. Also struggled, though I’m about double your average time of 10 minutes. Totally didscombobulated by being unsure of Creek as a language and not believing creek = estuary? I think of the Thames Estuary as between e.g. Kent and Essex (or Suffolk) – hardly a creek. Closer to home the Swan River has a huge estuary just down the road from here. Not a creek. Never seen home for address, and it didn’t feel right; ditto for nice/requiring careful attention; and NHO Bradley.
   On the plus side, guessed them all correctly, and really liked Cape Cod, focal, carbuncle and allegoric.
   1. Wiktionary
      creek (plural creeks)
      (Britain) A small inlet or bay, often saltwater, narrower and extending farther into the land than a cove; a recess in the shore of the sea, or of a river; the inner part of a port that is used as a dock for small boats.

      Neither did I know of the language:
      Proper noun
      Creek
      The Muskogean language of the Creek tribe.

      So the setter won twice on vocab! Andyf

2. I did race through the left half, but the right was very tough. I had to build echinacea from the cryptic, only to discover after solving that it is not actually a herbal remedy. I did biff a lot of them, like well-meaning and headstone (I would have used either Jagger or Richards for the clue). I thought the novelist was Kingsley Amis, who is far more likely to come to mind nowadays.
   1. However, Mick and Keith wouldn’t qualify, as neither is dead (although in the latter case it’s something of a miracle !)
      1. Are you referring to my mate Keef?
         1. I never think of any other Keef than former Mayall drummer Keef Hartley.
3. I had no idea about HEADSTONE’s second meeting (I’ve not read it either). At 4D I went for CZECK, which isn’t even the right spelling of the language I realized later. But I didn’t know CREEK as a language (although I did know CREE as tribe), but it seemed a bit of a stretch to call a creek an estuary.
4. Glad to finish today after yesterday’s silly error. The left half went in lightning fast! Only to slow down considerably on the right half. But it was all work-out-able in the end. Thanks for clarifying the PM and Bradley!
5. 36 minutes. I’m another who had no idea what Bradley was doing in 19ac (Walsh or Wiggins? but both are still living). The answer came easily enough from ‘memorial’ as I had most of the checked letters by the time I got to it. ECHINACEA was also unknown and was my LOI constructed from wordplay and checkers.

   I surmised correctly that the parsing of 10ac was intended as HOME (address), RIC{h} (full of comic potential)[mostly] but I think it’s an unsatisfactory clue. ‘Home/address’ has already been mentioned and I can’t see them as equivalents. ‘Rich’ can indicate a vein or source of many a thing of which humour or comic potential is just one possibility.

   I had the same misgivings as others over ‘estuary/creek’.

   I admit I also thought of Amis before Charles re 13ac.

   Edited at 2021-01-21 05:13 am (UTC)

6. I doubt very much that I’ve ever recorded a faster time than George, and I don’t expect to again. Biffed HOMERIC, never got around to parsing it. Biffed WELL-MEANING & KINGS LYNN, parsed post-submission. ‘Our Mutual Friend’ is my favorite Dickens novel, but the only Bradley I could think of was Omar. I knew that US CREEK is different from UK CREEK–ours is a brook or small river–but didn’t know what it is in the UK, so ‘estuary’ didn’t bother me. The Creek are now mainly in Oklahoma, having been forced to move there by the US government. There are maybe 5000 speakers of Creek, which makes it a rather poor choice for ‘language’.

   Edited at 2021-01-21 05:42 am (UTC)

   1. Thank-you for doing what I didn’t do, and looking up the dictionary: a creek is a small inlet or estuary in UK, apparently, a small river or brook in the rest of the world.
      1. Creek for estuary still bothers me a bit – it’s not in any of my OEDs or Collins – but I’ve only really been bothered by it since coming here. Did not parse 12d, but otherwise I didn’t find this particularly tricky, though my time (42mins), as ever, comes nowhere near most of the posters’ here.
         1. Try Chambers – they make up words and definitions for fun, so bound to be in there.
            1. And indeed it is !
         2. It is in Collins online:
            3. (chiefly in Atlantic states and Brit)
            a recess or inlet in the shore of the sea
            4. an estuary
7. 35mins and finally finished one this week. Yippee. I had no idea, as others as to some of the answers which were never parsed: COMB, HEADSTONE, CREEK, ENROL, ROE. Spent at least five mins on the ENROL/REAGENT CROSSERS. FOI CARBUNCLE, LOI REAGENT. COD CHIANTI, why not? Thank you George for the enlightenment and setter.
8. …Singing alone, Combing her hair
   Under the sea, In a golden curl
   With a comb of pearl,…

   25 mins pre-brekker.
   Hmmm…I liked it but the eyebrow was mobile concerning Rich, Nice, Record… and NHO Creek as a language, nor Bradley Headstone.
   Thanks setter and G.

9. This is becoming a solving week to forget with this my third failure of the week thus far. For some reason I thought of creek as the N Am/Aus/NZ definition – a small river or brook – so not an estuary. Having disregarded this I was then left with CHECK which sounds like a language but otherwise didn’t make much sense. Oh well, at least I learned two things – the UK definition of creek and the language.
10. 29 minute with LOI DANE. I’m afraid Mr Nielsen was solved as a generic Dane, not knowing Carl. Like others, I thought CREEK was a small inlet, the most famous of which is to be entered without a paddle. Bradley HEADSTONE was known and was biffable. I’m not sure which came first. ECHINACEA was constructed. Do they sell it at Holland and Barrett? I’ve only ever been there for the chocolate covered dates which are an excellent remedy for hunger pangs. COD to WELL-MEANING. A strange mix of easy and tough. Thank you George and setter.
    1. I have no doubt this is true but doesn’t it apply to most, you know, food?
       1. Of course it could. This was meant to be a joke about the efficacy of herbal remedies as opposed to more conventional cures, such as eating.
          1. Doh! Either your joke was too subtle or I was too stupid. The latter seems more likely.
             1. Not with your solving times!
11. Today’s fall from grace is the LINNET
    It’s another accursed bird, innit
    Words aplenty to use
    But avians they choose
    I’m just glad it was not pianet

    The word pignut would have fitted you see
    And its not a bird but a tree
    And what would you do
    For the rest of the clue?
    Try “two words that describe DJT”

    1. Very nicely topical! Thank you!
12. Unlike Kevin, I did not enjoy Our Mutual Friend, HEADSTONE passing me by. CREEK as a language unknown, and I need to modify my idea of ‘estuary’. Not sure at all why nice = requiring careful attention.

    As well as The Water Babies and the (well-known to quizzers) Westward Ho!, Charles Kingsley wrote a long book about Hypatia.

    23′ 11″ thanks george and setter.

    1. I think it is nice as in “that is a nice question, whether x or y”
       def 8 in wiktionary
       Showing or requiring great precision or sensitive discernment; subtle.
       Andyf
       1. A fairly common phrase is ‘a nice distinction’
    2. It was a new meaning on me too. It’s still unclear to me which the setter had in mind but my Chambers app has “over due” definitions which could fit:

       5. Calling for very fine discriminations (that’s probably the most likely)
       7. Delicate
       9. Fastidious
       10 Hard to please
       11. Over-particular

       Those last three could apply in the context of a “high maintenance” person.

       Edited at 2021-01-21 11:35 am (UTC)

13. Put me down for Kingers too.
    27:01
    One of those puzzles where you’re not slow, but have nagging doubts about being able to finish it.
    Thanks george.
14. 10:07. My only real problem here was CREEK, where like others I only knew what turns out to be the US version of the watery meaning and was very unsure about the language. Strange that there’s a UK meaning of a word that so many Brits were unaware of.
    I also thought of Kingsley Amis, but Charles must be intended. No idea about Bradley. I did know ECHINACEA but had to take great care with the spelling.
    1. But I was reassured by remembering Frenchman’s Creek. Wikepedia says “is a 1941 historical novel by Daphne du Maurier.” Definitely a smallish inlet of the sea rather than what is generally understood.
       Andyf
15. 11:45. Like others, DNK the Dickens character or that CREEK was a language. I also biffed WELL-MEANING and forgot to go back and parse. This was one of those where mostly the answers came first and the wordplay retro-fitted. FOI CARBUNCLE LOI CREEK. COD to REAGENT.
16. 17.52. Quite pleased as there were a few unknowns along the way- headstone was a good and obvious guess but didn’t have a clue about the clue. I always cringe when I see botanical references but got lucky with this puzzle . Echinacea was my COD.

    FOI famish, LOI excited.

    Thanks blogger and setter.

17. Foiled in the end by GOLDENROD. I had all the checkers, but I parsed “former” as simply “old” and then put “Goldeared” without checking the rest, feeling quite pleased with myself. Oops.

    Also didn’t parse HOMERIC – I thought “comic” in the clue was giving us Eric, as in Morecambe, but couldn’t make it fit so it eventually went in with a shrug. Thanks to the blogger for explaining it.

    Nice = requiring careful attention is new to me.

    FOI Dane
    COD Rehousing

18. An average-ish 17.36, while not being anywhere near sure of everything. HEADSTONE would have been fine in a TLS, and I half expected a pink on the second C of LICENCE even though I’d thought of N(I)CE. Plant paralysis struck with GOLDENROD, only twigging when all the crossers were in. Cree and CREEK are apparently two different groups, only one of which I knew, but estuary was close enough to confirm.

    On the other hand, ECHINACEA flowed in from Mrs Z’s penchant for weird infusions: I think the one we have is with raspberry, and Twinings undoubtedly says it has remedial properties, whether it does or not.

    Many thanks for the blog, George, and for allowing me a chance to come within a gnat’s crotchet of your time.

    1. One would hope the infusions have remedial properties as in my experience they certainly shouldn’t be drunk for their taste 😉
    2. I took ECHINACEA for a short while (during which time I seemingly mis-pronounced it) as a relative recommended it as a good way of staving off the common cold.

       All the time I took it I had constant sniffles. Proper snake oil if you ask me.

       1. I think herbs are often allergenic.
          However preventing the common cold is a claim too far!!
          Andyf
    3. Well done Z!
19. Didn’t get the HEADSTONE reference, though ghoulishly I did think of boxer Bradley Stone who came to an unfortunate end.

    KINGS LYNN was the key for the top half for me, though couldn’t spot whether LICENCE should be spelt the English or American way – plumped for English.

    And CREEK = Estuary? I don’ think so. Only stuck that one in as I had all of the checkers…..

20. Some biffable answers sped things up, even if no idea of the Dickens connection for Bradley. CREEK couldn’t really be anything else.
    Interesting to see both Magoo and Verlaine erring (in otherwise very fast times); not sure where that would have been. LICENSE? ECHINACIA? Answers on a postcard, please….
21. One can have a “nice” point of law so I wasn’t troubled by that part of 8d but I did hesitate between the US and UK spellings – one or two members of the former president’s entourage are at risk of losing their law licenses. The stream that runs through our property is called Crum Elbow Creek but I happened to know about the Creek tribe so that nailed it. As Z says, rather a TLS flavour to this one. A nice point of law about the wool-carders of Barchester features in Trollope’s The Warden. 18.07
22. Slowed towards the end as I encountered things which were buried quite deeply inside my memory palace, such as the Dickens character and the plant; also being careful to get the LICENCE rather than the LICENSE. I remembered coming unstuck on a clue before by not knowing of the existence of the Creek (and confusing them with the Cree), so I got that, but raised an eyebrow for the other definition, as all the estuaries I can think of are on the large side for what I previously thought of as a creek. Still, that’s language for you.
23. Was relieved when neither CREEK nor LICENCE returned pink squares. Same head-scratching as others on those two and HOMERIC. As you’ll have seen above I knew ECHINACEA.

    I was pleased with my time as I paddled up a few blind creeks, for example at 25 where I wasted time looking for a word meaning reduced made up of [token]RED.

24. Half an hour, quite slow to see some but nothing that was a real problem. Had no idea about Headstone but put it in anyway, nice to see Carl Nielsen getting a mention, I like his clarinet concerto. Never heard of the Creek tribe but not unhappy with creek for estuary. Liked CARBUNCLE and REAGENT.
25. for the bent goldenrod and the lost sea smell. Drawn back to these enticing puzzles now and then only to find myself in a decidedly tougher landscape than envisaged. Here foolishly threw in Corpuscle at the end for a dnf in 35’27. I find my times going down now I’m solving (or trying to) less often. Much to appreciate in this one though.
26. FOI 4dn DELTA – up *** creek paddle free!

    Take 2

    FOI 7dn BAKED ALASKA – Hot = BAKED – L = Learner – to seek = ASK – approval = A is for answer ***! Close but still no paddle.

    Take 3

    FOI 18ac COMB – bingo!

    LOI 5dn ECHINACEA – a daisy native to America. Daisy Duke?

    And all in 35 minutes after all that!

    COD My second marriage was at The Reg. at 13ac KINGS LYNN, close to where Bad King John lost his treasure.

    WOD NORMALITY – I have heard nothing but the word ‘NORMALCY’ on CNN today; FOX used ABNORMALCY; the Beeb and Deutsche Welle NORMALITY!

    Edited at 2021-01-21 02:32 pm (UTC)

27. Never heard of Bradley Headstone or Carl Nielsen. These would be more at home in a general knowledge crossword. Otherwise, all okay. ‘Headstone’ went in okay because of crossing letters and ‘memorial’.
28. 35m today finding the south much easier than the north. I started with Headstone, a recent rewatching of the BBC’s excellent adaptation of OMF, with a manic David Morrissey as the aforesaid teacher, helping with that clue. Also hesitated like other more notable solvers over ‘nice’ and CREEK. No trouble with the herbal remedy as a regular user. Thanks to setter and blogger today.
29. Nice to see ECHINACEA from my erstwhile profession as a health shop owner. It boosts the immune system, by the way, and is best as a tincture. Preventative not a cure.
    Main difficulty was LOI DANE which had ballet in it, which word gives me the same feelings as our bird loving poet above, but fortunately it wasn’t the name of a ballet. And I’d never heard of the composer either.
30. I biffed HEADSTONE being unaware of the character, hesitated over LICENCE/LICENSE, was unsure of both meanings of CREEK and biffed HOMERIC. I also had to carefully construct ECHINACEA. I didn’t bother parsing KINGS LYNN once I had the crossers. The rest of the puzzle was a gentle enough exercise. 30:10. Thanks setter and George.
31. Went through three phases solving this: “it’s really difficult”, “actually it’s quite straightforward”, “no it isn’t!”. Headstone was biffed but what else could it be?

    COD CARBUNCLE

    Thanks to setter and blogger.

32. I was very glad everything finished up as all present and correct after 45 minutes. Same comments as others re the unusual (to me) senses of CREEK and the unknown ‘Bradley’. Just managed on my last check through to see the nice distinction between the S and C spellings of LICENCE.

    The first and probably only time in my life I’ll ever be above Magoo on the leaderboard, so some cause for celebration anyway.

33. Struggled and defeated by my final 2 – unable to recall 5D: ECHINACEA hampering 10A: HOMERIC, although both were attainable. I enjoyed 7D: CURRY FAVOUR.

    Thank you, glheard and the setter.

34. Bit of a struggle, and I’m surprised by the low snitch. After Wiggins and Omar and the actor, I could think of no more Bradleys so went with the obvious. I’ve read OMF but had forgotten the character. Creek as estuary surprised but I calculated there must be a wider meaning I was unaware of. Kingsley the novelist used to pop up a fair bit in the same era as Tree the actor. I rather favour keeping them going so that future generations can wonder at our massive grasp. Been listening to the other Nilsson (two ‘s’s and an ‘o’), Harry. But he was Swedish stock.
35. Very pleased to nail this in 14 mins. Mr HEADSTONE went in unparsed and I didn’t overthink the creek-estuary nexus as I knew CREEK as the Indian language and was happy enough with the watery connotations of the word to bung it in on sight.
36. Rich – full of comic potential? Full of almost anything would do, e.g. full of flavour. For me the 8a clue would be better without ” of comic potential in “, just ‘address mostly full of epic style’, though it doesn’t scan quite as well.
    Fingers were crossed for LICENCE vs LICENSE, the nice distinction required didn’t occur to me, but at least NICE is a word, whereas NISE didn’t seem to be ( though maybe it’s in Chambers! )
    Error free 2021 continues……31’41”
37. ….since I’m completely rudderless. DNF and wasn’t remotely on the setter’s wavelength.

    NHO Bradley HEADSTONE, Nielsen, CREEK as a language, or ECHINACEA. I need to thank George for the parsings of HOMERIC and ROE.

    I biffed my way practically to the end in 10 minutes plus change, but gave up on Nielsen – I was looking for a Christian name, and the title of a ballet with its C omitted.

38. Including a lot of side-eye staying at C_E_K before plumping, thankfully, for the right answer. I had zero confidence, though, having never heard of the language and not really relating to estuary = creek. I walk past Deptford Creek every day. Very much not an estuary. But it looks like the dictionary knows best…
39. A good effort but failed to finish in the SE. As a plant phobic I could not get Goldenrod but I had managed to work out ECHINACEA and knew what it was -all those adverts in the Saturday paper probably. Did not get REAGENT or EXCITED.
    Otherwise all there with the same guesses as others.
    Our Mutual Friend was not on my To Read list. Should I put it ahead of Barnaby Rudge?
    David

    Edited at 2021-01-21 03:04 pm (UTC)

    1. I’d put just about any of D’s novels ahead of Barnaby Rudge.
40. On a roll is certainly stretching it, but that’s two on the trot that I’ve managed to finish without using aids (apart from confirming a few dubious answers). Helped along the way by knowing Echinacea (which I see is one up on the spellchecker) and Goldenrod, and mis-parsing 10ac to squeeze in a reference to Eric. Not being very good at this can sometimes be an advantage, with Well Meaning going in with a customary shrug over ton/style (ditto Bradley’s connection in 19ac). It also took me ages to see how 23d worked, but got there in the end. Invariant
41. Well off a PB but certainly the best I have done in comparison to the times of the legends of this blog. I started slowly with DANE being my first entry on my initial across sweep. ECHINACEA went straight in as I have some in the cupboard to ward off colds. DNK the Dickens reference but had the necessary checkers for a biff by the time I revisited it.
42. I think wavelength is pretty important. On some days I can zip answers in very quickly, but in others I struggle at first, then gain speed as I tune in to the setter. I think that’s what Andy Murray does when reading his opponents serves.
    Finished this one, with a few unparsed. Took maybe an hour in total, but in two sittings. Creek didn’t bother me, but the ‘nice’ in licence did.
43. Must be old time musical song week. Today we had linnet, which features in Follow the Van, and yesterday we had tile from Any Old Iron.
44. I believe I’m the only one to fail on “Goldenrod”!
45. Call it kismet, fate, coincidence or just plain “one of those things”, but two of the answers were almost a write-in for me.

    My father was born in Croatia and we have goldenrod in the front garden!

    Jovan.

46. Creek is used in the UK too.

    Licence = noun, License = verb. Except in the USA where the only form is ‘License’ ie both noun and verb. Mr Grumpy

47. 19.12. Meandered through this in a roundabout way not quite seeing rich, comb, nice and creek and not knowing the Bradley in question, but got to the finish line in a quicker time that I’d expected.
48. Well, I completed this one, probably in about half an hour, but don’t know because, after racing through half of it, I hit a brick wall and, when that happens, I always take a break to unclutter my mind before going beck to it. Usually works. There were quite a few that I just biffed because the answers made sense and were at least not ruled out by the clue. Not having read ‘Our Mutual Friend’, ‘headstone’ went in simply because it is a synonym for memorial and I already had the starting ‘H’; similarly I have never heard of ‘creek’ as a language, but I had the starting ‘C’ and second ‘E’, so went for it. ‘Ton’ meaning ‘style’ was unknown to me, but the answer had to be ‘well meaning’ given the letters I already had. The one that had made me cross was ‘curry favour’; I got it, but couldn’t see how the clue worked at all; having read the explanation here, I’m not impressed; ‘flavour’ as a synonym for ‘suggestion’? I don’t think so and neither does the Concise Oxford Distionary.
    1. I think it works in the sense of adding a splash/flavour/suggestion of something to a sauce.
49. Finished, and all correct. Wow. I don’t have a time because I did it in the paper off and on through the evening. It wasn’t fast. At one point I put it down thinking I had done as much as I could with a lot of empty spaces on the right hand side. And when I picked it up again I more or less banged them all in.
    Lots of risky ones that paid off (like simply assuming that the Cree spoke Creek). COD the simple but delightful OVERDUE, because I understood it. Thank you glheard for the blog that filled so much in for me.

50. As with so many others, biffed quite a few without fully parsing so thank you blogger for the explanations. I had COMO instead of COMB and needed helpers for ESCAPADE and GOLDENROD (plants always my weakness) but actually did the rest quite fast, for me.

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