Clean out of masterful forward contest (4)
I believe the answer is:
maul
'forward contest' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'clean out of masterful' is the wordplay.
'clean out of' means to remove the middle letters (I've seen 'cleaned out' mean this).
'masterful' with its middle removed is 'MAUL'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for maul that I've seen before include "Claw in loose scrum" , "Wound by scratching and tearing - rugby move" , "A loose scrum in rugby" , "Treat roughly; heavy hammer" , "Batter - lacerate" .)