No idea about "clocking". The new chain runs fine on the front gear. Googled it and found nothing.
These pics are with the old chain back on, which runs ok (apart from sticking a little on the bottom of the front gear; started only recently).
The new chain was the same number of links as the old one. Yes, it is obvious you cannot remove just one link; you can do only in twos. Is the chain I bought wrong? I posted a URL to it.