Crossword Genius

Butch Cassidy's opening hotel, with despot coming round (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

macho

'butch' is the definition.
(I know that butch can be written as macho)

'cassidy's opening hotel with despot coming round' is the wordplay.
'opening' says to take the initial letters.
'hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet).
'with' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'despot' becomes 'Mao' (Mao Zedong of China).
'coming round' indicates putting letters inside.
The initial letter of 'cassidy' is 'c'.
'c'+'h'='ch'
'ch' put within 'mao' is 'MACHO'.

(Other definitions for macho that I've seen before include "Butch" , "red-blooded" , "Showily virile" , "Laddish" , "Spiny lobster" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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