Huddersfield local paper

[multiguess]

Struggling this week on these last three-
"Rubs out the phonetic spelling of 'vehicles'" S - A - S
(Scars?, Scabs?) Can't see the logic in either.
"To a lesser degree? Wrong!" N - T - -
and crossing with that one-
"A hollow ring is evident in the word 'copse'" - R - - - E
I just can't think of anything for that, and I'm pretty sure of the letters given!

[beejay1124]

could last one be-Groove
gro-o-ve ?

[multiguess]

Yes, could be GROOVE...good answer. In which case the preceding one would have O as its last letter
"To a lesser degree? Wrong!" N - T - O
Even discounting the letter T, a possibity, it's baffling me.

[multiguess]

Further thought-
Although this clue "To a lesser degree? Wrong!" N - T - O claims to be 5 letters, they have made errors in the past, and if it was (3,2) the answer could be NOT SO, which makes a bit more sense, I think!

[beejay1124]

was going down the 'no/not' line but couldn't think of anything

[multiguess]

Nor me, beejay. I guess it'll be NOT SO. While I have my tea (mushroom soup) I'll ponder on the remaining
"Rubs out the phonetic spelling of 'vehicles'" S - A - S
Thanks for the groovy answer somewhere up there!

[bathtub]

The 'Rubs out...' one is SLAYS (rubs out in the slang sense of 'kills', sounds like 'sleighs').

My only thought for the other one (but it is only a thought, I'm not at all convinced) is NETTO, a rarely-used (in English anyway) variant of NETT or NET, as in 'net price').

[jno]

yes, not so good means good to a lesser degree, so that makes sense.

[multiguess]

Yes, SLAYS is good. Not sure about NETTO, as the second part of the clue "To a lesser degree? Wrong!" doesn't seem to fit. NETTO isn't wrong, or am I missing something?

[beejay1124]

phew! thank goodness i dont live near Huddersfield with crosswords like that

[multiguess]

True, and how they manage to solve it in Bangalore I have no idea. (It also appears weekly in The Deccan Herald, though sometime later- anyway they're up to number 2863)