Crossword Genius

Getting hold of match official is difficult for Cambridge University (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

harvard

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'for cambridge university' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'getting hold of match official is difficult' is the wordplay.
'getting hold of' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'match official' becomes 'var' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'is difficult' becomes 'hard' (synonyms).
'var' inserted within 'hard' is 'HARVARD'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for harvard that I've seen before include "Ivy league university in Cambridge, Massachusetts" , "place of learning" , "American university" , "Oldest US university" , "Ivy-league university" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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