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Former church novice provided credit for what's outstanding (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

excellent

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'for what's outstanding' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'former church novice provided' is the wordplay.
'former' becomes 'ex'.
'church' becomes 'ce' (abbreviation for Church of England).
'novice' becomes 'l' (abbreviation for Learner e.g. on UK cars).
'provided' becomes 'lent' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'ex'+'ce'+'l'+'lent'='EXCELLENT'

'credit' is the link.
This may not be correct. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for excellent that I've seen before include "A-One" , "A one" , "Outstanding, very good" , "Quite splendid, extremely good" , "'Superior, first class (9)'" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times and the Irish Times (Crosaire).
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