Liverpool's borders?

ELS

Think of the letters that surround "Liver" in the word "Liverpool" when you remove the main part.

This clue plays on the word "Liverpool" by breaking it down into its last three letters—"pool"—and then asking for its "borders," meaning the letters that surround it. In "Liverpool," the letters right before and after "pool" are both "L" and "S," giving you "L" (left border) and "S" (right border). The answer "ELS" is just those border letters ("L" and "S") wrapped in a clever twist: "E" stands for "end" (the last letter of "Liver"), and "S" is the start of the next part, though the main trick is focusing on the edges of "pool" itself. It’s a compact wordplay puzzle where the answer hides in plain sight.