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The word created is shown as 'rare') in Chambers, granama1 - and it was new to me.

...luckily, it was roughly where I was expecting the key part of the theme to be.

@ Drxx. In which case, I've been barking up the completely wrong tree! I was convinced the connection was a famous person who, of all the possibles, had released s***b***s of the 8/9. (Initials EF).

I'll go and stare at the little flowers in the middle and start from there! (:o)

Yes, that's right (the outer letters are in the grid - the centre letters make two new crossing entries).

Thanks Drxx. The penny drops. I'd considered all sorts for changes in that long word....apart from the rare spelling that it ends up as!
(Bit sneaky having such a high % of tweaks to such a short 'familiar name'). Enjoyed it though, despite my end game dimness!

Yes, I enjoyed the puzzle too, so I was happy to overlook the radical surgery needed for the key name (and I had to find that name before I could complete the set!). Lots of thematic stuff and nicely worked (I think).

I was expecting it to be seasonal and have to find praline and caramel! LOL, the last bit of the end game took me longer than the whole of the Listener this week! Just the Azed left for tomorrow.

I hope you haven't just given away the endgame to the 'i's Friday special 'with a twist'!

'You never know what you're gonna get'

🙂

To quote John and Yoko 'Let's hope it's a good one'......been hearing too many Christmas songs, sorry!