Crossword Genius

Legal-minded don loses nothing cracking up the shires (6,7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

middle england

'the shires' is the definition.
(the shires can mean counties in Middle England)

'legal-minded don loses nothing cracking up' is the wordplay.
'loses' suggests deleting specific letters.
'nothing' becomes 'O' (looks like zero - 0).
'cracking up' indicates anagramming the letters (the original order breaks down or cracks up).
'legal'+'minded'+'don'='legalmindeddon'
'legalmindeddon' with 'o' taken out is 'legalmindeddn'.
'legalmindeddn' anagrammed gives 'MIDDLE ENGLAND'.

(Other definitions for middle england that I've seen before include "Conservative section of society" , "Suburbia" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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