Cryptic Clue

[markbuswell]

Help with parsing please... Elizabethan has to get irregular start, not uniform (5). M?F?I. The answer is clearly MUFTI and I get where the I comes from but not the rest of it. Thanks in advance

[dannyk13]

Muft- an Elizabethan spelling of must(have to) + i(rregular)

[Captain2]

Doh! Another one from The Toughest Crossword

[dannyk13]

Which one Capt?

[markbuswell]

Thanks dannyk13

[Lie-in King]

A written 'S' looked like this - ∫ - similar to a lower-case 'f' without the crossbar. Given that -

Mufti - 'mu ∫ t' (Elizabethan "has to get"; must) + 'i(rregular)' (start)

[elliemay1]

The 'Impossible' one ??

[Lie-in King]

Apologies, I should've refreshed the screen - I took too long finding the stupid ∫ ...

[markbuswell]

...and thanks for the explanation Lie-in King!

[Captain2]

You must have seen HC's link last week Danny. I'm sure a lot of us want to have a go on their own, and like me, haven't yet had time to have a look.
So when an untitled clue appears on here and I take a look I'm disappointed to find it's from that particular Xword.

https://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Quizzes-and-Puzzles/Crosswords/Question1602759.html

[dannyk13]

Ah!, I didn't bother with it.

[Mamyalynne]

I think part of the problem is the lack of a clear title/number to the crossword - that would have helped.

It certainly isn't impossible.

[nescio]

It certainly isn't impossible. It took me about two and a half hours, to complete, apart from 1D. That took a similar time until I realised why I could not find the answer in a dictionary. Some of the clues are ridiculously easy and I cannot fathom why they are in a supposedly impossible puzzle. The most difficult clue was apparently 4D, but I found that pretty straightforward.

[Captain2]

I'm not bothered as to the (im)possibility of it.

I just think that, you must be a lover of crosswords to have come across it, and really enjoy a good testing crossword to have attempted it. So why oh why not persevere with it for longer - it's not been out a week yet. Rant over.