A lot of soldiers at macramé evening last Thursday! (4)

I believe the answer is:

army

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'a lot' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'soldiers at macrame evening last thursday' is the wordplay.
'soldiers' becomes 'RM' (Royal Marines).
'at' means one lot of letters go next to another (I've seen this in other clues).
'macrame evening' becomes 'a' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'last' indicates one should take the final letters.
The final letter of 'thursday' is 'y'.
'rm' after 'a' is 'arm'.
'arm'+'y'='ARMY'

'of' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for army that I've seen before include "Horde" , "Large military body" , "See 17" , "Vast number" , "Ground forces" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

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