Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

I'm a bit confused by some of the definitions here, so any help most welcome....

1a. Swell Green politician wearing gown (10) - DECOMPRESS?

It looks like 'Green politician' = ECO MP 'wearing' DRESS (Gown) but I can't find any references that give Swell and Decompress as synonyms.

8a. Running rock festival's last thing female wanted (4) - LAVA (Running Rock) fits the def., but if the L is from (festiva)L, then why is AVA ''thing female wanted'? - or is it wrong?

26a. Pole - ladies' man (4) - SLAV

If 'Pole' = S + 'Ladies' = LAV, then the def. would be 'Man' but any reference I look up on line gives it a 'race of people' - what am I missing?

See paragraph 3:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavs

Sorry Brendan, misunderstood

Hi Scorpiojo, thanks for that, I'm still confused though. I did look up Slavs and saw the ref to Poles, but then if that's the def., then where does the S come from and what is 'Man' doing there?

6a L = 'festival's last thing' + Ava (female name).

26a Pole = S ladies = LAV(atory) ?

Hi Nikki, thanks for that. I did consider it might be a name but was really hoping it wasn't and that I'd overlooked a gem of a parse. I think it's a real cop out by the setter because, theoretically any collection of random letters can be a name, especially these days with Z list celebs. calling the children any old thing. But there you go - rant over.

Hi Busby, I'm more interested in the definition, I've already parsed the clue in my original question.

Re 1A: Chambers gives 'decompress' as "to expand (compressed computer data) to its original size" = swell for definition

26A: man = mankind = the human race (a human people)

Please ignore last post re 'man' - didn't read your question properly!