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Thanks, quisling. The four I have (ie not the first) are 5,2,3,8. Is this OK?

I think the third word of the five is 5 letters, not 2.

I'm confused by this part of the pre-ramble:

"All the letters of the symbol appear in a central region of the completed grid (with 90° rotational symmetry and occupying 64 cells)."


Is it the "central region" that has 90 degree symmetry and occupies 64 cells, or the letters of the symbol? If it's the central region, then, given the bars in the grid, there seems to be only one possibility for the "region". So I feel like I'm missing something.

Whoops, now I see it - "post-enlightenment" strikes again!

I saw it too, eventually, Buddy! Then it took a while to make sense of 10 of the letters though. QAT was needed eventually. 🤔 The extra letters as fodder solved the mystery.

(It didn't help that I thought there was an extra word in one of the later down clues so I was perming 5 from six).

Can someone please confirm whether:

The first missing word is 6 letters
The thematic symbol contains all of the different letters in the 64 cell region.

Thanks in advance

Yes to both.

thanks drxx - inspiration struck following your confirmation.

I've spent far too long fixated on a rather obvious 5-letter word, clued by the second of the five words, but to no avail as it includes a letter twice. From what I read here all 15 letters are used once only. Is it too much to seek a letter count for the two words? None of the anangram cheats seem to work with two-word mysteries, alas.

It's 10,5, and letters are re-used.