Crossword Genius

What game's been covered by New Statesman once? (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

nehru

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'statesman once?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'what game's been covered by new' is the wordplay.
'what' becomes 'eh' (sound used to ask 'what?' or 'pardon?').
'game's been' becomes 'ru' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'covered by' means one lot of letters go next to another (on top of in a down clue).
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'eh'+'ru'='ehru'
'ehru' put after 'n' is 'NEHRU'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for nehru that I've seen before include "Former Indian leader" , "India's first prime minister" , "Former Indian PM" , "Asian statesman" , "First prime minister of 5" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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