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darla @18
Brummie in the Guardian last week:
Scrapped lunch to take north-eastern link to the continent (7)
I suppose that could be reverse engineered?

Darla@18
Make a meal of going NE when digging the Chunnel

Needs improving, anybody?

For a bite to eat, Natalie edges away from Chunnel redesign (5)

(Head in hands emoji)

Menu choices in lower case not included with the central offering (5)

lower case: LC
not: UN(-)
the central offering: (t)H(e)

Chris @21, thanks for that.

Just under 4 hours left. Still time for that earth-shattering clue. I will be back in about 5 hours for judging. Cardio tennis at noon, followed by, you guessed it, lunch.

Just saying I haven't forgotten Peer Review. Away at the moment and about to eat out. Should be back to hotel before 10 p.m..

All right, here are your results. Touches I liked were Chris's opening salvo double def. using the no free lunch cliche; buddy's and whetstone's launch - a, even despite buddy's vivid imagery; paul's UN peacekeepers; mattrom's Lurch; bacchanal's acrostic, geeker's Lydia Lunch reference; paulh's exchange; and jimmy's and bacchanal's taking on the chunnel challenge. As for buddy's "shameless pandering," I always love to be pandered too, but I was looking for Lucas numbers this time.

I had an early favorite though, and while some nice clues came along, nobody could dislodge it. For simple elegance, and such a smooth surface, our winner is whetstone with:

Set off without a meal (5)

Congratulations on your maiden victory, whetstone. Here are your prizes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pD9mk0Y_pyo

and inspired by geeker (warning - language):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqEIDTR7RtU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqEIDTR7RtU

pandered to - damn autocomplete

Bravo whetstone; you'd have copped my vote too.

Well done, whetstone. Sharp stuff and perhaps you are on a roll. Thanks for the detailed adjudication comments, darla.