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Pulls out of a hotel because of the ruffians (5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

thugs

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'the ruffians' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)

'pulls out of a hotel' is the wordplay.
'pulls' becomes 'tugs' (tugging is a kind of pulling).
'out of' is an insertion indicator (some letters on the outside of others).
'a hotel' becomes 'h' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'tugs' placed around 'h' is 'THUGS'.

'because of' is the link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for thugs that I've seen is " Ruffians".)

I've seen this clue in the Evening Standard.
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