Crossword Genius

Confusion as base guards left gate unoccupied (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

melange

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'confusion' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'as base guards left gate unoccupied' is the wordplay.
'as base' becomes 'mean' (synonyms. I am not sure about the 'as' bit.).
'guards' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'left' becomes 'l' (common abbreviation).
'unoccupied' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (remove the inside letters which occupy the word).
'gate' with its centre taken out is 'ge'.
'mean' placed around 'l' is 'melan'.
'melan'+'ge'='MELANGE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for melange that I've seen before include "Confusion" , "Varied mixture" , "Mixed bag" , "Miscellany" , "mixed collection" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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