Crossword Genius

Dog at home catching stick? On the contrary (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

pother

'dog' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'home catching stick? on the contrary' is the wordplay.
'home' becomes 'H' (abbreviation as used in sports fixtures).
'catching' means one lot of letters goes inside another (I've seen this in other clues).
'stick?' becomes 'pot' (stick is a kind of pot).
'on' becomes 're' ('on' can be mean 'with reference to').
'the contrary' says the letters should be written in reverse.
're' in reverse letter order is 'er'.
'pot'+'er'='poter'
'h' inserted inside 'poter' is 'POTHER'.

'at' acts as a link.

(Another definition for pother that I've seen is " fuss".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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