Syndicate of old men providing protection (8)
I believe the answer is:
covering
'protection' is the definition.
(covering is a kind of protection)
'syndicate of old men' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'syndicate' could be 'ring' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'ring' is located in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is found in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'providing' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for covering that I've seen before include "Enveloping" , "Sleeve" , "shelter" , "making new version of record" , "acting as a reporter" .)