As detailed in a previous crossword, LAKE often clues the letter L and RIVER often clues the letter R. Sometimes, though, they can clue the name of an actual lake or river: Lake Superior and Lake Erie are particularly popular with crossword setters, for fairly obvious reasons. Other words which commonly clue the name of a river are FLOWER, BANKER and RUNNER. If you enjoy my crosswords, you'll LOVE the Cryptic Mystic's fantastic YouTube channel, which has been kind enough to feature a couple of my crosswords and is THE best resource for cryptic beginners: https://www.youtube.com/@The_Cryptic_Mystic
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Thank you for all your lovely comments.
7A: Former lover = EX, so more than one of them are EXES. The River EXE is a major river in Devon (hence the names of the resort EXMOUTH and of my native city of EXETER). If there were more than one of it (which, of course, there isn't, but in Crosswordland anything is possible) that would also be EXES.
4D No, it is most definitely NOT the canonical way to handle initialisms and it felt wrong, but I really didn't know what to do. The word in question is often pluralised, but as the final S is not a separate word, it seemed wrong to enumerate it (1,1,1,1). However, the word in question is always sounded as single letters (in the same way as the BBC is, not as an acronym like NICE or DEFRA), so (4) also felt wrong. Any suggestions?