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All sorted except for 5d. Just cant get my head round it now for an hour or two. Clearly T will be the letter(s) removed and I assume the answer is THE something - please ignore all the above just cracked it !

I thought I'd finished this, but have just realised I've missed one...
26 A. Number three, after losing English opener for Essex, is out at last (6) th?i?t
I know 'e' is/are the letter/s to be removed, but my mind has gone blank. Any help appreciated.

PS. This will probably make sense only to other Inquisitor solvers!

THREE loses E for English and E for opener to Essex.

This gives

THR
Add IS and T, for 'out' at last/

This gives THRIST as the letters to enter.

Two letters Es are missing, which would give the real word ETHERIST. Someone who numbs patients.

Thanks, Nelson, that's wonderful! I spent ages playing with 'the...', but didn't think to put an 'e' at the very beginning.

malone,

It took me years to stop reading 'number' as always meaning 1,2,3 etc.
Or to put it another way, to read it with a silent 'b'.
So it could be a verb or an adjective, as well as a noun.
Although in this case it's a noun of course.
It's a crafty old setter's trick but it nearly always gets me.
It was only by following the logic of the clue that I got there - and I had to look up ETHERIST to make sure.

A bit petty,but in case anyone quibbles I meant different forms of ETHERIST

ETHERIST noun

ETHERISE verb

ETHERISED adjective

And so on.....

Or is ETHERISED a past participle?

Nelson, thanks for the info.