Lots of jumbles make me nervous. What’s more all the down answers, and there are lots of them, are jumbled. And…there are only six across clues, the remaining entries make up 21 thematic terms…to be guessed! However, this puzzle comes with the all new SOLVING STRATEGIES and that tells me to crack two or three across entries and nine down entries.
I decided to test the strategy, especially as there were only two clued across entries in the lower half of the grid, and duly solved 17, 19 and most of the down answers. I didn’t see 22 straight away but that was the third possible answer. So I didn’t have much work with but the strategy suggested I had enough. The key for me was 6, it put a F, J or U as the first letter of 21. Looking at possible 2nd, 4th and final few letters the only word that sprung to mind was JUDGEMENT. Writing this in gave 10 as possibly being WORLD. Brewers was recommended so I knew that somewhere in there was a list of 22 things including JUDGEMENT and WORLD…Tarot!
I’m not sure which corner of my mind that was stuffed away in but checking Brewers confirmed that there are 22 (named) cards in a Tarot pack including he two I had, though it was THE WORLD. Dropping the definite articles I quickly put in most of the across answers only needing a handful of down answers to resolve a few ambiguities. The rest of the across answers fell quickly and because of the checking only only needed to solve a few more down answers to complete the grid.
[The] DEVIL as the one card not in he grid which was to be written below the grid for a correct solution.
The need not to solve every clue always detracts a little from a puzzle for me though getting the theme early was obviously a help there. The cluing was excellent but very much on the easy side.
(XY Z)* anagram
X[Y]Z insertion
X[y]Z deletion
ZYX< reversal
“xyz” homophone
| Across | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HOUSE OF GOD | ||
| 10 | WORLD | ||
| 15 | FOOL | ||
| 17 | SHIURI | RI in (HUM IS)* | |
| 19 | PIER | P[I]ER | |
| 20 | LOVERS | ||
| 21 | JUDGEMENT | ||
| 22 | DEDIMUSES | DE DI MUSES | ‘of’ in both French and Italian. The long definition here stymied my parsing of this clue for a while. |
| 23 | HOLI | H O L.I. | H = heroin, O = on, LI = Long Island |
| 26,30 | WHEEL OF FORTUNE | ||
| 33 | MAGICIAN | ||
| 34 | EMPRESS | ||
| 36 | MOON | ||
| 37 | SUN | ||
| 38 | STAR | ||
| 40 | EMPEROR | ||
| 42 | STRENGTH | ||
| 44 | JUSTICE | ||
| 46 | CHARIOT | ||
| 49,51 | HIGH PRIESTESS | ||
| 57 | HANGED MAN | ||
| 60 | HERMIT | ||
| 61 | NETE | ETEN< | |
| 62 | DOULIEA | ODALI[sq]UE | the inferior veneration accorded to saints and angels in comparison to the accorded to the Virgin Mary. |
| 63 | POPE | ||
| 64 | DEATH | ||
| 65 | TEMPERANCE | ||
| Down | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HALF | HALF[a] | halfa or alfa is a grass. |
| 2 | OAKWOOD | O AK W O OD | AK = Alaska, OD is a supposed force. |
| 3 | DIESEL | DIES EL | |
| 4 | SEIR | SE IR | |
| 5 | OHMS | O[HM]S | OS = ordinary seaman. |
| 6 | FUJI | F U J I | U = for all to see, ie the film rating. Fuji is a mountain in Japan. |
| 7 | FUNGUS | F (G NU)< US | Candida is a type of fungus so a ‘perhaps’ or ‘say’ might have been |
| 8 | RODE | “roed” | this word has caught be out before. I was trying to fit the past tense of ride, I was thinking about road and rowed. I then remembered the RODE is the present tense of a word meaning, of a woodcock, to make its display flight which is a series of regular flights. |
| 9 | GID | GI D | |
| 11 | MOOP | MOO P | a lovely Scottish word with a few nice meanings, to consort with, to nibble, to mumble. |
| 12 | IRE | IRE[nic] | |
| 13 | LINENS | NIL< ENS | LINENS are underwear |
| 14 | TROD | T ROD | |
| 16 | HOVE | dd | I knew a few people who lived in Hove Actually |
| 18 | HERM | dd | one of the smaller Channel Islands and a sculptured bust. |
| 24 | LURE | dd | |
| 25 | MEIJI | ME I JI | JI is an Indian suffix, hence the subsequently. |
| 27 | CORE | CORE[gent] | the adjective gent = noble for Spenser. |
| 28 | COLIN | COL IN | I finally appear in a grid! |
| 29 | SOAR | SOA[y] R | soay are Hebridean sheep. Y is an unknown. |
| 31 | MORAS | dd | I couldn’t solve this one from the clue and resorted to looking up anagram possibilities. MORA is the game of guessing how many fingers are being held up. It is also a legal term for a delay. |
| 32 | SHELL | SHE’LL | |
| 34 | HENT | HEN T’ | HENT = reach (obslete) |
| 35 | PERT | PER T | a = per. |
| 36 | IMPS | I[MP]S | |
| 39 | STYPTIC | (TYPIST C)* | |
| 41 | HEAUME | “home” | home appears in the clue |
| 42 | CLAIMS | CL AIMS | |
| 43 | RAPINE | RA PINE | RA = Royal Artillery. |
| 45 | HIDE | dd | |
| 47 | MOOS | MOOS[e] | |
| 48 | HAND | H AND | |
| 50 | TEGG | T EGG | one of the many words we have for sheep. This one is a two year old from the north of Britain. |
| 52 | RUME | RUME[x] | Rumex is sorrel. |
| 53 | PENE | PEN E | a type of hammer. |
| 54 | HIES | (HE IS)* | |
| 55 | RATE | dd | |
| 56 | TREE | T[R]EE | R = recipe = take. |
| 58 | TAN | dd | TAN = tangent, a mathematical function. |
| 59 | TOD | dd | |