Dish having very fine, soft hair gets new top (5; 7) C?R?O?Y. I think the aswer is CURSORY, the 5 letter solution being CURRY.
Can anyone confirm this answer? Many thanks, Aperio.
Note : Where a clue has two letter counts, its answer (indicated by the first count) needs to have another word inserted to arrive at the entry to be written in the grid (indicated by the second count). Each such clue contains a superfluous word which hints at the word to be inserted. No part of the clue refers to the word(s) to be entered in the grid.
Aperio - Would this be 'Furry' (very fine soft hair) with 'C' for 'new top' (in exchange for 'F') = CURRY as you suggest ? I'm not familiar with this particular crossword - just thinking aloud. ja
I should have pointed out above that the "superfluous word" in the clue was 'very', which can, in some circumstances, mean 'so'. Thus, you get CUR SO RY.