The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word STARTERS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Guardian
S
T
A
R
T
E
R
S
More clues leading to the result STARTERS
- Beginners lead rest astray
- Cultures in which there are people looking to save time?
- Courses in which you'll get soup in some otherwise unhelpful places?
- Sports event officials opening course
- Dismissing old pop hits like tele critic wasted few words
- For which chaps have got into cooking ham and pea soups?
- Courses for beginners
- More cutting on board making tapas?
- Banquet’s beginning with exotic taster — butterscotch at heart
- More biting into case of scrumptious appetisers
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Sports event officials/opening course" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case sports event officials/opening course = starters.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does STARTERS mean?
STARTERS noun- Someone who starts something.
- Something that starts something.
- The first course of a meal, consisting of a small, usually savoury, dish.
- (team sports) A player in the lineup of players that a team fields at the beginning of a game.
- A dog that rouses game.
- A short length of rope formerly used for casual chastisement in the Navy.
- A railway signal controlling the starting of trains from a station or some other location, more fully called a starter signal or starting signal.