Extremely versatile way to enter small tube (7)

I believe the answer is:

veinlet

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'small tube' is the definition.
'veinlet' can be an answer for 'tube' (I've seen this before). I am unsure of the 'small' bit.

'extremely versatile way to enter' is the wordplay.
'extremely' means to remove the middle letters (only the extremes of the word are used).
'way to enter' becomes 'inlet' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'versatile' with its centre removed is 've'.
've'+'inlet'='VEINLET'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for veinlet that I've seen is " Tube".)

I've seen this clue in The Times and The Sunday Times.

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