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Spy cracking lob shot with three players around, a common feature of Wimbledon (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

wombles

'a common feature of wimbledon' is the definition.
(the Wombles live on Wimbledon Common)

'spy cracking lob shot with three players' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'spy' could be 'm' ('M' is James Bond's boss) and 'm' is found in the answer.
an anagram of 'lob' is 'obl' which is located in the remaining letters.
'with' could be 'w' (abbreviation) and 'w' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'es' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

'around' is the link.

(Another definition for wombles that I've seen is " Orinoco, Wellington, Bulgaria etc".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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