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29a - The more I look at this the more I wish I'd made it my COD - what an ingeniously witty clue:-)

It's a French word - not sure what it has to do with the US?

It's the US spelling of the word.

Oh dear, I am really struggling with this one. Usually I can cope with Paul and have fun doing so - not today! Can anyone help with some gentle, not over-helpful, hints? Also - Brendan, please don’t stop!

Hi Barbs, thanks for that, I appreciate it:-)

If you're having trouble with the theme try ...

17a - the 2 outer letters are "case of sapphire" so then you want a 3 letter "shell" - I'd never heard this word but a quick check showed it was a type of 7

Thanks Brendan, I rather presumed it was a bit Glasto but Google didn't come up with any meanings that match any possible def. What is the definition word? Summer?

Found it now, thank you Brendan.

Thanks Pauly,

Yes (of or occurring in) summer. As Neville says, it's French from Latin and this is it's US spelling - Paul is really putting us through our paces this week:-)

I had an inkling that 1a had come up recently and sure enough the “proper” (i.e. Latin) spelling appeared in a cryptic by Crucible in August last year :-)

Jono, your ability to recall these things is amazing.