Crossword Genius

Maintain park for one of those on The Bench (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

preserve

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

'maintain' is the definition.
(I know that maintain can be written as preserve)

'park for one of those on the bench' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'on' could be 're' ('on' can be mean 'with reference to') and 're' is present in 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 preserve that I've seen before include "Keep alive; jam" , "Maintain in unaltered condition" , "Keep in sugar" , "put on the table in advance?" , "Particular interest" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Times.
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