Crossword Genius

Rival with deep novel won (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

prevailed

'won' is the definition.
(prevailing is a kind of winning)

'rival with deep novel' is the wordplay.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'novel' indicates an anagram.
'rival'+'deep'='rivaldeep'
'rivaldeep' with letters rearranged gives 'PREVAILED'.

(Other definitions for prevailed that I've seen before include "Was in force" , "had his way" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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