Sunday Express Skeleton Sunday March 12Th 2023

[88buick]

5a) ?S?E???..Claims appellants initially run past you
8d) ??E?E...Attendant runs past you
17a) S??T?..Rash head putting school first
25) ???N?E?..A follower left bound by mistake

[elliemay1]

25 blunder

[elliemay1]

17 s pate

[rayzorless]

17a spots?

[elliemay1]

5 should be 'Claims appellants initially overemphasise'
Asserts

[rayzorless]

5a asserts?

[elliemay1]

8 /Attendant runs in past you/
seen as 'there'

[klazomaniac]

That makes more sense elliemay.
Thee (old/past) you
R = run

the R e

'There' as an adjective is an 'attendant' (being present)

[Carol07]

17a Spate

[klazomaniac]

The parse for 5a is:
Claims (Asserts)
A(ppellants) [initially] + Stress [reversed]

Should 17a say 'Rush' ?

[elliemay1]

//Spate is a synonym for rash in outbreak of disease or condition topic. In some cases you can use "Spate" instead a noun "Rash".
//

[88buick]

Thank you so much. All finished now xx

[klazomaniac]

Thesaurus states that 'Rash' as a noun is a related word and not a direct synonym.

Related words are normally frowned upon in crossword terms.

https://www.thesaurus.com/browse/spate

[klazomaniac]

Ps Elliemay1, I asked as Q's 5a and 8d had been submitted by the OP incorrectly.
So I wondered if this was the case for 17a.

[elliemay1]

You could be right Klazo

[klazomaniac]

I guess we'll never know elliemay1 :-)

Happy to help 88buick :-)

[elliemay1]

//https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/rash//
//An outbreak or surge in problems; a spate, string, or trend.
Synonym: epidemic
There has been a rash of vandalism lately.//

[klazomaniac]

Hi elliemay1, I didn't intend for this to be a competition. But I certainly wouldn't use wiki as a source of information. I have no doubt that there is proof out there. I questioned the OP due to false information that you have obviously looked up on the internet. Relax, I'm a friendly person :-)

[Frustrate]

Many thanks for your help. Frustrate