Joint squad carrying out visit to begin with (8)

I believe the answer is:

dovetail

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'joint' is the definition.
(I know that dovetail is a type of mortise and tenon)

'squad carrying out visit to begin with' is the wordplay.
'squad' becomes 'detail' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'carrying' indicates putting letters inside.
'to begin with' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'out visit' is 'ov'.
'detail' placed around 'ov' is 'DOVETAIL'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for dovetail that I've seen before include "Come together" , "good joint" , "Kind of joint" , "Joint with fan-shaped tenon" , "Interlocking joint" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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