Crossword Genius

Hit on nose saving English swimmer that wriggles (7)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

lamprey

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

'swimmer that wriggles' is the definition.
'lamprey' can be an answer for 'swimmer' (thesaurus). I'm not certain of the remainder of the definition.

'hit on nose saving english' is the wordplay.
'hit on' becomes 'lam' (to 'lam' means to hit hard. I am not sure about the 'on' bit.**).
'nose' becomes 'pry' ('pry' can be a synonym of 'nose').
'saving' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'pry' placed around 'e' is 'prey'.
'lam'+'prey'='LAMPREY'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for lamprey that I've seen before include "Eel-like bloodsucker" , "seafood" , "Fish with sucker mouth" , "Eel-like vertebrate with a sucker mouth and horny teeth" , "Eel-like creature - play REM (anag)" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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