Coward catches bishop's virus regularly on front of mask element (8)

I believe the answer is:

nobelium

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'element' is the definition.
(nobelium is a kind of element)

'coward catches bishop's virus regularly on front of mask' is the wordplay.
'coward catches bishop' becomes 'nobel' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'regularly' indicates alternate letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'front of' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'mask' is 'm'.
The alternating letters of 'virus' are 'iu'.
'nobel'+'iu'+'m'='NOBELIUM'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for nobelium that I've seen is " Atomic no. 102".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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