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Greengage, there’s a 6 letter fern in Bradford. Cover the last three letters, reversed, with a symbol for fifth

Thanks quisling; I haven't got Bradford (what is that?); is the fern in Chambers?

It’s Bradford’s Crossword Solver’s Dictionary. A very handy resource for the Listener. Yes, it is in Chambers. The first two letters are crossword-related, and couldn’t be further apart ...

Hi, greengage,

I’m not entirely convinced by this clue. The answer appears to refer to a more or less inland sea adjoining the Crimean Peninsula. If you Google “water fern”, you will get a six-letter word ending in “lla”, that is, “all over”. Replace these three letters with V, and you get the sea.

My concern is that, although V is the Roman numeral for five, Chambers doesn’t specifically mention “fifth”. Is there an alternative parsing that makes sense?

Hi wintonian, it’s true Chambers doesn’t mention it specifically. But it’s in common enough usage as a regnal number, e.g. Henry V, so I’m sure that’s the intended parsing, even if it’s looser than you might wish.

Admittedly no 'the' in the clue...but presumed in sense of eg Henry V

Thanks again quisling; wintonian, could one argue that V is 'fifth' in regnal numbers?

Sorry for redundancy, should've refreshed page before posting!

Thanks quisling, crates and greengage,

Yes, I’ll accept the regnal number interpretation. Some people would say “Henry Fifth” rather than “Henry the Fifth”, so omitting the definite article wouldn’t be wrong.

Thanks, merenz. Particularly "doh"-inducing as my birthday was last week.