Crossword Genius

Remarkable chum hugging female and old blokes (10)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

phenomenal

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'remarkable' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'chum hugging female and old blokes' is the wordplay.
'chum' becomes 'pal' (both can mean a friend).
'hugging' indicates putting letters inside (outside letters hug or embrace inside letters).
'female' becomes 'hen' (female chicken).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'old blokes' becomes 'omen' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'hen'+'omen'='henomen'
'pal' going around 'henomen' is 'PHENOMENAL'.

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(Other definitions for phenomenal that I've seen before include "Extraordinary - help one man (anag)" , "Amazing" , "Remarkable" , "Stunning" , "Mind-blowing" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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