Crossword Genius

Captain on all sides today (4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lead

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'captain' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'on all sides today' is the wordplay.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'all' becomes 'love' (I've seen this before).
'sides' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'today' becomes 'ad' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'love' with its centre taken out is 'le'.
'le' next to 'ad' is 'LEAD'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lead that I've seen before include "Guide; precede" , "Go ahead; element" , "Main news story" , ""bullets"" , "Go in front with heavy metal" .)

I've seen this clue in the Irish Times.
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