Crossword Genius

Groovy district in an English county? (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

rutland

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'an english county?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'groovy district' is the wordplay.
'groovy' becomes 'rut' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'district' becomes 'land' (land is a kind of district).
'rut'+'land'='RUTLAND'

'in' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for rutland that I've seen before include "Smallest English county" , "Smallest of the historical English counties" , "Bucks? Something of that ilk" , "Tiny county" , "Small English county" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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