Visual Description: Not serving.
LAPRIS = SPIRAL, RAFTEL = FALTER, EGGGIL = GIGGLE, FLONDU = UNFOLD, NIRWYE = WINERY, TINIFE = FINITE — Giving us: SPRARGIEUNLRYNTE
Clue/Question: The tennis courts were filled with – – –
Pre-Answer: Two Words (9-letters) (7-letters)
Answer: RETURNING PLAYERS
(No idiom here, so I did struggle a bit. Good pun though! I had to go on to the Sunday Cryptoquote, before I could solve it. Then, somehow, I came up with “PLAYERS”, which left me with RRGIEUNNT. Something in there told me it might end in ING. From the RREUNT I got RETURN, and I had my answer. There were no new clue words, however all of the jumbles appear to be new. I have to admit that I had a little trouble getting “falter”. I felt that because of fault I might need a U, but I took a shot at “falter”, and it felt right. I was able to get over my UN issues, and come up with “unfold”, after toying with flound. The answer letter layout was mightily cryptic! It definitely did not give anything away. The cartoon was great, but not overly telling, for me. Be well and do good, friends.) — YUR
Yes that was definitely a tough one. I’m glad you didn’t rely on my link ( https://www.seattletimes.com/games-universal/?amu=/iwin-jumble ) to the Sunday puzzle online, mobile version, when you were considering not renewing your Sunday newspaper subscription, because since I shared that suggestion with you, that online puzzle hasn’t worked right for the last three weeks. This week the puzzle just wouldn’t load. The two weeks before that, everything seemed fine except one letter in one regular word in each puzzle that wasn’t included in the final answer was circled rather than one letter that was needed, so those two were not solvable, though I was able to figure both of them out. One of those two got fixed the next day. Pretty poor performance over there at Universal Games. They just don’t care about puzzlers.
Well, first, there were issues! My paper left off the bottom part of the puzzler. I had no idea how many words solved the puzzle! UNC! Thanks so much for putting that information on your blog!
Dadgum UN word…I held fast to FLOUND, but then decided to check it on on my Handy Dandy Resurrected Spelling Ace — no go. So I moved on to the remaining two words and then returned to FLOUND.. Other than UNFOLD, I was able to work through the clue words pretty quickly.
Then I found PLAYERS right away, but could make no sense of my remaining letters. I felt like the first word was RETURNING (going for that ING word), but I didn’t have enough Rs. Or so I thought. I had pulled down the E in FALTER instead of the R into my clue letters! Oy!!! Took a bit to actually SEE the error. So frustrating when that happens.
Then it all worked out! Super grand puzzler! Thanks Guyz and Unc! LL
Luv ya, LL! — YUR
The final answer broke my brain!