Crossword Genius

Hidebound individuals with secret organisation lacking a base (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

twitchers

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'hidebound individuals' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot judge whether this works.

'with secret organisation lacking a base' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'with' could be 'w' (short for with) and 'w' is present in the answer.
'organisation' could be 'tc' (TC is an example) and 'tc' is located in the answer.
'base' could be 'e' (Euler's number - base of natural logarithms) and 'e' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for twitchers that I've seen before include "unsettled people" , "Naturalists" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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