Times 27733 – Below the belt?

69 comments on “Times 27733 – Below the belt?”

1. I went for BELTING meaning I had an incorrect answer in both the Quick and the daily puzzles today. Oh well, better luck next week.
2. Went for BOLTING which came straight to mind. Didn’t think of belting, luckily. Overall I found it quite Mondayish, not at all difficult. Wavelength?
3. Another belter. I did an alphabet trawl, stopped at E so never thought of BOLTING. Like isla, I found this a quite Mondayish puzzle. By and large.
4. BELTING never entered my mind. Pretty easy puzzle.

   I liked seeing “fiction” play a part in BEATIFICATION, quite apt. I read in Le Canard Enchaîné (8 juillet) that the Vatican is considering the canonization of one Carlo Acutis—an Italian who died of leukemia in 2006 at age 15, and who created many websites for priests as well as one devoted to miracles—as the patron saint of netizens. Moreover, since 2002 there has been a “patron saint of the Internet,” Isidore de Séville, who died in 636.

   Edited at 2020-08-03 03:41 am (UTC)

5. on the SNITCH. I thought I was doing okay at around 27 minutes, but I’m slightly behind the pack on the WITCH list.

   Like isla3, I’m very glad I didn’t think of “belting”.

   Along with our esteemed (if somewhat stifled) blogger, I did like both the definition of “thinking Greek” and the cluing of AUSTERITY.

   Edited at 2020-08-03 07:27 am (UTC)

6. 30 mins, with a misspelt Liquor.
   I found the top half much easier.

   LOI stable.
   COD Aristotle.

   Edited at 2020-08-03 04:45 am (UTC)

7. 12 minutes but no cigar because I belted through it.
8. Twenty minutes for me, so definitely on the easy side. FOI 1a HERITAGE; for LOI 19d I considered “belting” but persevered to BOLTING, so I suppose I must have been on the wavelength.
9. 18 minutes is in PB territory for me as I’m not sure I have ever achieved the elusive sub-15 solve – maybe just once. I suppose I was lucky not to have considered BELTING at 19dn because if I’d thought of it first I might have stuck with it, but BOLTING came to mind immediately on reading the clue and fitted so perfectly that I bunged it in and moved on. If I’d faced a choice between them I’d like to think I’d have gone for the setter’s answer. ‘BOLTING /fixing things together’ are everyday general expressions whereas ‘belting’ for ‘fixing’ would be unusual and less widely applicable. As for the other definition, BOLTING can cover both ‘running’ and ‘scared’ which ‘belting’ doesn’t. A horse that’s frightened may bolt and the term ‘bolter’ exists to describe one that makes a habit of it. It’s also used in that sense of certain women in literature, see Nancy Mitford’s ‘The Pursuit of Love’.

   Edited at 2020-08-03 06:13 am (UTC)

10. 19 minutes with LOI EDIFICE. COD to GOINGS-ON, a phrase which arouses interest in the listener as it gives so little away. MEDICAMENT looked so strange as I wrote it down that I had to do a double-take. The construction of PAINSTAKING was described by the word itself. I found this reasonably straightforward. Thank you U and setter.
11. Having spent last week in Devon I can conclude that a holiday is good for the soul but not so good for the solving as I had a fair few errors. I was thus glad to ease into this week with a fairly straightforward solve.

    Looking at the leaderboard there are quite a few with one error, for which I’m guessing it was BELTING as mentioned above. I consider myself to be in the fortunate camp who didn’t think of that, though BOLTING does suggest running scared more than BELTING does. If I’d thought of BELTING first I’m sure I would have gone for it though.

    1. I wondered if those unfamiliar with HMQ’s seasonal timetable and therefore the indirect reference to her might have gone for AUGUR at 4dn.
12. Easy puzzle. BOLTING surely significantly better answer than “belting”
    1. Which is why I was so angry with myself for settling on ‘belting’.
       1. Me too.
    2. If an answer is valid, it’s valid, and the existence of a better one doesn’t change that. However in this case I don’t think BELTING is valid because it doesn’t imply fear.
       1. Goof point
          1. Sorry. Good point!
13. Happily all correct. I saw that mad was bats and not nuts. Plus I had running scared as bolting and not belting. So no errors deciding over the nuts and bolts of this puzzle.

    Aristotle is an anagram of Totaliser. An alternative to Totalisator and Totalizator. The Tote, where you bet on horses, was originally the Horseracing Totalisator Board. Socrates is an anagram of Coasters. Plato is an anagram of Topal – an indigestion remedy.

    COD: ARISTOTLE. Made me smile.

14. …For all is dark where thou art not.
    15 mins with yoghurt, banana, granola (inc. Oatmeal).
    A confidence booster.
    I don’t like “with” as a link word and this crossword has it twice. I hope this doesn’t become the new normal.
    Thanks setter and U.
    1. Definition “with “ wordplay perfectly acceptable.
       Same as saying “a car with four wheels and a roof rack “

       🙂

       FGBP

    2. Three times, I think: 25a, 5d and 17d!
15. 9:57. I didn’t find this difficult. LOI MEDICAMENT after fixing my spelling of INSOUCIANCE. BELTING never occurred to me, fortunately.
16. I don’t see any argument for belting. Belting is surely running fast, nothing more; whilst bolting is running away, when frightened or scared, in the horsey sense anyway. Two different concepts to my mind.
    1. I agree. The inclusion of ‘scared’ makes the correct answer clear.
17. Slow for a Monday, can’t say I belted through it, got it bolted down.
18. I had four goes at spelling INSOUCIANCE and still got it wrong, making my successful entry of BOLTING insignificant. I need to be more painstaking, especially about anagrams.
    BELTING didn’t occur to me, and while I would be calling for VAR if it had, it’s not running scared, now is it?
    Otherwise, this was a game of two halves: I got halfway through the across clues without pause, then slowed to a crawl in the lower section, with BEATIFICATION taking about as long as the process itself, trying to find a Pope to fit into the wordplay.
    16 minutes and a pink
    1. If you had called for VAR the umpire would surely have been instructed to stick with his original (OUT) decision.
       I listened to/watched the VAR decisions during the last test with increasing fascination. I thought the umpiring was first class throughout, and a vast improvement on the dodgy opinions so often given in olden times.
       1. In the first Test v West Indies, Kettleborough, especially, and Illingworth were very average. The West Indies would have been skittled for even fewer in their first innings were it not for VAR.
          1. Much as I appreciate the comments, guys, I won’t be able to get to sleep tonight if I don’t call on the services of the Abbreviation Review (Sports) Establishment to explain that in Cricket, it’s the (Umpire) Decision Review System. VAR was introduced to bring football decision making into disrepute by allowing referees and their assistants to defer to a bloke watching TV in a room in Stockley Park.
             1. …only because the bloke on the pitch won’t walk to the touch line and look at the monitor.
19. STABLE took me the longest – I was looking for a word meaning mad before I realised it wasn’t just el that was being reversed. I did think of belting before BOLTING sprang to mind, which definitely has connotations of running away scared that belting doesn’t. SWAMI is one of those words I only know from doing crosswords. A nice way to start the week.

    FOI Heritage
    LOI Stable
    COD Aristotle

20. Coming here, I was a very happy bunny with a (very) PB of 17mins. That is until I saw U’s definition of 19d. Aaaaargh. I had needless to say put in BELTING. This does, of course, as U says, answer the clue just as well, but……..Oh well. COD to 3d. Thank you U and setter.
21. A pleasant start to the week, not quite breaking the 20m barrier at 22 today, so I was not belting either. Thank you to blogger and setter.
22. Well that was rather fast and luckily BELTING didn’t enter my head. I have adopted a new technique of having my coffee before, rather than during, the crossword. So far, so good.

    COD: ARISTOTLE, cleverly concealed join between definition and wordplay.

    Friday’s answer: Oppenheimer’s ‘I have become Death’ comes from the Bhagavad Gita.

    Today’s question: which is the longest Harry Potter book?

    1. Any: they’re all unreadable. joekobi
       1. This !
       2. The first one isn’t as bad as the others. After that she was successful enough to dispense with the much-needed services of an editor.
    2. Starts to review rotten Hogwarts novel, read ropy proof then head to the exit, distraught (5,6,3,3,5,2,3,7)
    3. Society bird’s going to the Ashes series? (5,2,3,7)
23. Easy today, and I note that the Snitch is currently on 65 which borders on “Very easy.”
    Belting did occur but seemed wrong, as not scared, just quick.
    In 2dn I did briefly wonder what an erifisk was..
    1. Snap!
24. Just to be different, I had BALKING, which doesn’t work at all. I was chasing a good time so didn’t spend as long on it as I should have.
25. ….in 4 minutes, I eventually spent a minute and a half in the SE corner on 18/22A and 20D. If I’d spotted the correct usage of “fast” I’d have been home in 7 minutes.

    I took great care over AUGER as I’ve fallen into that trap before. Wouldn’t have considered “belting”, but never saw it anyway.

    FOI HERITAGE
    LOI STABLE
    COD ARISTOTLE
    TIME 8:23

26. 11’01. All flew in without a much of a flap; my fastest time for a decade or two I should imagine. Good to see the word ‘austerity’ used without furrowed brows and an accusatory stare. joekobi
27. although I did have to check the meaning of AUGER. LOI LIQUOR where I failed the ‘if it’s a u…’ rule.
28. 24:03
    It’s bolting; nothing else works.
29. I spent a while in the SE until BEATIFICATION gave me some assistance. BOLTING and SUBVERSION were my last 2 in. I thought of BELTING, but it didn’t quite seem satisfactory, so a further alphabet trawl quickly yielded BOLTING. HERITAGE was my FOI and I made rapid progress until the SE reined me in. Liked ARISTOTLE. 24:04. Thanks setter and U.
30. 13:42, of which at least five minutes staring cluelessly at my last two: EDIFICE and MEDICAMENT. I think my main problem was that I don’t recognise the latter as an English word.
    I considered BELTING but couldn’t reconcile it with ‘scared’.
31. nice to be able to finish one after a run of 4 successive DNFs!
    STABLE my LOI, after I finally untangled the SE corner.
    Enjoyable solve and just what was needed. Thanks blogger and setter
    just under 30 minutes i’d say
32. Same experience as most; found it easy, never thought of alternatives to BOLTING, took a little while to see why 22a was STABLE my LOI. 20 minutes.
33. 
    Liquor, ale, tea and oatmeal – I could go for that diet….

    27.55 with no real problems.

    Thank you to setter and blogger.

    Dave.

    1. Four of my five a day!
34. Yes, initially this felt like it had escaped from the QC but it got a bit trickier as you went down the grid. I think of “belting” as something you might do with a drink or Ethel Merman might do with a song so I didn’t consider it luckily. 15.05
35. I thought I’d be brave today and tackle the ‘big’ one and am so glad I did.
    STABLE, EDIFICE and BEATIFICATION took a bit of sorting out but the penny dropped eventually.
    I really enjoyed INSOUCIANCE, ARISTOTLE and AUSTERITY and I’ve chosen OATMEAL as my COD as it’s ‘oat so simple’!
    Thanks to both setter and blogger for a great start to the week.
36. 11.44. Started off well but got a bit bogged down in the SE. Eventually worked out swami and went for stable cos it fits the cluing. Hand to forehead moment when I read the blog and realised it was fast as in secure not pacy!

    COD beatification mainly due to the fact I was in St Peter’s some years ago and witnessed one, turned out it was that of the founder of the order that taught me . How’s that for happenstance. In case anyone is wondering, I don’t think it would count as a miracle…,

    Nice start to the week.

37. Tackled over lunch. LOI was EDIFICE, was trying to get RISK in there for too long. Parsed a few afterwards, notably BEATIFICATION and ARISTOTLE. 18:24 on the clock, anything under 20 is quick for me.
38. Is the beer clue not phrased the wrong way round?
    1. Hale (healthy) with head removed = ale
39. Second time I’ve completed one of these in time to comment (just). I was hoping for a pb (under 97), but dozing off for half an hour scuppered that. Mind you, I wouldn’t have made it anyway as I finally got STABLE at 2:22:22 (two long!). At least I got everything correct unlike the QC this morning. Not sure I knew the word MEDICAMENT and AUGER is definitely a new one for me, except I didn’t think it was. Turns out I was thinking of augur, as in something augurs well. Who knew it was spelt with two Us? Now I’m wondering whether an auger is pronounced to rhyme with gouger. I suspect not, but it might help me remember what it is.
40. Since when is stable a synonym of fast? Not even close in my book. Stephen
    1. Stable and fast both mean secure.
41. 14 mins is close to PB territory for me but I managed to bung in the utter momble LATEREAL for FAREWELL. La te and then “long” seemed to be at the end of the clue so I just shovelled it in. The fact such a word clearly exists only in my imagination is a tad embarrassing but such is the way with the momble 😀
    1. “Just a pocketful of “mombles”, such are promises” (with profound apologies to Paul Simon).
42. 13:07. I was off like a rocket on this puzzle where at first every clue seemed to do exactly what it said on the tin and required no additional mulling over. With the top half all done in around 4 mins I started to dream of a sub-10 finish. Alas I found the clues in the bottom half of the puzzle required a little bit more application and pushed my time out beyond the 10 mins mark. A pleasingly swift solve nonetheless.
43. Well I’m usually a Quick Cryptic solver, but thought I’d have a one of my occasional goes at the 12×12 today. I sailed through it in about 45 minutes and am still in shock.
44. BELTED through just under half an hour, and yes, I was annoyed to see the pink square. BELTING fits well enough that it doesn’t wave a red flag when one scans for errors, although BOLTING does fit slightly better. If only I’d thought of it.

    Edited at 2020-08-03 10:54 pm (UTC)

45. I had BILKING, spoiling a perfectly good sub-20 solve. Was smacking the bed in frustration.
46. Had PONTIFICATION for a while, but, praise be, changed to BEATIFICATION without too much soul-searching. 16’34”

Comments are closed.