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Is welcoming to opponents at table? One’s cold and hard (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hailstone

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

'is welcoming to opponents at table? one's' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this defines the answer.

'cold and hard' is the wordplay.
'cold' becomes 'hail' (I've seen this before).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'hard' becomes 'stone' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'hail'+'stone'='HAILSTONE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for hailstone that I've seen before include "sign of cold weather" , "bit of a storm" , "It lands with a noise" , "drop of ice" , "Falling ice" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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