Crossword Genius

Amateur in front of elders, cross and impertinent (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

inexpert

'amateur' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'in front of elders cross and impertinent' is the wordplay.
'front of' says to take the initial letters.
'cross' becomes 'x' (**).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'impertinent' becomes 'pert' ('pert' can be a synonym of 'impertinent').
The initial letter of 'elders' is 'e'.
'in'+'e'+'x'+'pert'='INEXPERT'

(Other definitions for inexpert that I've seen before include "Amateur" , "Bumbling" , "Lacking know-how" , "Green" , "with little skill" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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