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Thanks all. Not in my BRB and should have seen the gear... Also feel like I've seen that word in the Listener quite recently which makes it worse.

Deulc - look in Chambers under erg definition 2 (plural).

As usual late starting again. I find this (at least the grid fill) much easier than previous puzzles also. Not quite there yet though. Am stuck on the unclued 6D. I have all the crossing letters and only the blanks to fill in. I cannot find a word or words that will fit which makes me think I’ve gone wrong somewhere. I haven’t yet applied the instructions from the extra letters though. Would appreciate a hint if possible.

Bear in mind the date this was published!

Goshawk - 2 words 5,7.

Many thanks malone and smartie. Got it now. Had it in my mind that the last word was rock! Much appreciated

Another outing for this theme, but no harm in that and the geographical representation really wasn't too bad considering the thematic requirements. Two particularly nice features were the misleading title, which didn't refer to the Paris gathering last Saturday, and the appearance of the country's name on the east coast :-)

Hi Crosswhit, I won't be too harsh - most people seem to have enjoyed the puzzle, although quite a few say that it wasn't so good as most we've had so far this year.

But, even within the constraints of the grid chosen by the setter, erasing the last cell of 13A, all cells of 19D, adding landmass in the cells above and below 36 (first cell) and the cell before 22, and shifting the row 1 landmass one to the left, would have made a more accurate map.

However, I don't understand why the setter would choose a 11x13 grid for this. Something like 15x15 would have afforded much more accuracy. Perhaps the explanation for that has already been given by Caphrist in comment 10.

Having finally splashed out on the chambers app, I can confirm that it makes life very much easier. Although it did feel a bit like cheating when I used it to find the tapestry/sail combo. One thing I don’t understand is how we come by the U in 39ac.

It comes from u boat (sub)

Most of boat gives you boa which surrounds m for the grid entry.

The u is therefore superfluous.