Crossword Genius

Support story accepted by match official (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

relief

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'support' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'story accepted by match official' is the wordplay.
'story' becomes 'lie' (I've seen this before).
'accepted by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'match official' becomes 'ref' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'lie' put within 'ref' is 'RELIEF'.

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(Other definitions for relief that I've seen before include "Alleviation or support" , "Person replacing another on duty" , "Burden lifted" , "welfare" , "Cosmos" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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