Children ultimately in pathetic fight for play area (7)

I believe the answer is:

sandbox

'play area' is the definition.

'children ultimately in pathetic fight' is the wordplay.
'ultimately' indicates one should take the final letters.
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'pathetic' becomes 'sad' (**).
'fight' becomes 'box' (boxing is a kind of fighting).
The last letter of 'children' is 'n'.
'n' inserted into 'sad' is 'sand'.
'sand'+'box'='SANDBOX'

'for' acts as a link.

(Another definition for sandbox that I've seen is " It's full of grains!".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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