Times Cryptic 27350

76 comments on “Times Cryptic 27350”

1. I knew Shrub as a concentrated mixture of herbs or fruit, sugar, and a bit of vinegar, which the younger crowd in the US are now using instead of It (ie, Vermouth) in Martinis. (So-called Martinis – real Martinis of course being only gin and it). I made some (thyme and honey; strawberry and balsamic) and found it also mixes well with fizzy water when a non-alcho drink is in order.

   Having the crossers got me all the right letters into the right Ptolemaic orbits, ditto for my usually mis-spelt Manoeuvre. I did this for (almost) the first time on-line, and put my irritation down to pixels vs paper, but reading the comments above maybe it was the puzzle itself that was the root cause.

2. I know nothing about TMIAB but just found a writer that fitted the checkers and then figured Marlow is a town on a river so why not?
   1. Thanks, K. I just couldn’t see it. Tried to make Stearne fit (I know) but no luck. Also didn’t know Marlow is on a river, so gave up. Need to go back to geography class 🙁
      1. My geography is generally pretty poor but now I think about it I’ve actually been to Marlowe recently: my daughter rowed in a regatta there not so long ago. So I got lucky!
         1. 🙂
         2. Was your daughter rowing at Henley Keriothe? She must be good. Which in turn reminded me of a favourite Bateman cartoon from an old Punch.
            https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CCN8vwfVIAA6Kir.jpg
            1. No, she doesn’t take it that seriously, I’m glad to say. It was a schools regatta in Marlow itself.

               Edited at 2019-05-14 03:57 pm (UTC)

3. ….as I’m in Nottingham to get photos of the University HOPPER Buses – run by Arriva, but you’d never guess !

   Basically, I thought this was a really poor puzzle. Guessed HASID as I’d heard of Hasidic Jews. DNK the fly, but the other meaning got me through.

   FOU HOPPER
   LOI DUES
   COD THE ASHES (a diamond in the dirt)
   TIME 13:35

4. Aaargh! I worked through this quite comfortably and was reasonably happy until the last couple. I could see (more or less) what was going on with 26a but foolishly put amorous in, which completely messed up 19d. No idea where I got the ‘u’ from – another non-u, I suppose! As I grew up in the Thames Valley and love Upstart Crow, I was VERY cross with myself for missing Marlow/e. No problem with frit, although not commonly used in this part of Leicestershire, and shrub takes me back to the 70s, to winter holidays in the Scillies, where days out were usually rounded off with rum and shrub. Not for me though – I thought it was revolting!
5. 75 mins but no idea about FRIT. Not heard of the drink either but at least that was guessable
6. Found this fairly straightforward although mystified by SHRUB. As mentioned earlier I only knew FRIT from Mrs T’s use of it. Apparently an old Lincolnshire usage.
   Off to Iona, the only island in Scottish crosswordland, tomorrow. Will report back.
7. I did not time my solution, but enjoyed the puzzle. I think I also knew shrub as a drink from Dickens and, like others knew frit as terrified, though was not sure of the fly. I agree that some of the definitions stretched things a bit, but not enough to spoil the challenge.
8. 45:40. After a fast start the increasing uncertainties took their toll and I ended up crawling over the finish line surprised to get through unscathed. Shrub just preferred as more plant-y than scrub. I knew the terrified meaning of frit and hoped it was a type of fly too. I was a bit hesitant over Marlowe. I saw the film of TMIAB a few years ago and thought Marlow might have featured (my geography isn’t good enough to tell me it’s a place on the Thames) but then I wasn’t sure Marlowe was an author as opposed to a playwright. I suppose one can author plays, my gut instinct though was to associate author with a book or novel rather than a play. Nice to see Warren G in 27ac. I believe he had to regulate.
9. I got through this in 38 minutes, with a certain amount of biffing, bewilderment and bodging. The biblical quote in 15ac was unknown to me, and simply reinforces my opinion that children ought to be protected from subversive texts like the bible.

   The three vowels (why _do_ the French do that sort of thing?) in MANOEUVRE always confuse me, so it’s as well that the checker from 6d eliminated 4 of the 6 possible options. HASID was an NHO, but I reverse-engineered it from “hasidic”.

   The FRIT fly (which is presumably an even smaller version of the fruit fly, consisting of just the head and abdomen) was another NHO, but I still managed to justify the answer on the grounds that “fly” is a form of ash, often harsh and abrasive and therefore destructive; and a FRIT is also a sintered filter made from coarse particles, and so… well, now that I think of it, my reasoning eludes me. But it was good enough at the time.

   NHO HARDING as a president, SHRUB as a drink, or MARLOWE (or indeed MARLOW), but they all seemed plausible. In summary, all the right answers, but not necessarily for the right reasons.

10. This took a while, say 30-35 minutes, ending with FRIT, where I certainly didn’t know of the fly. Didn’t understand MARLOWE either so biffed, I suppose you can call it. More like: “That must be it…”, because I didn’t know enough to make sense of the rest of it. Regards.
11. Thanks setter and jack
    A DNF for me with FRIT unknown and with neither definition to be found in various searches before being directed here by one of them. Did enjoy working my way through the rest of the puzzle though.
    A fair bit of general knowledge required with the Orthodox Jew, Three Men in a Boat and the towns that they visited, Christopher Marlowe, the Ancient Greek astronomer, the 29th POTUS and that ‘terrified fly’.
    Thought that THE ASHES clue was the best from a surface perspective, the clever construction and the relevance of it.

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