Thanks, Bob.
The domain is .com
Unfortunately, support are telling me different things so I have to concur with the above as per decline in support from NC (which TBH wasn't the best to begin with)
But I think you are on the money on the...
Namecheap seems very dodgy now! I had a domain expire 3-30-24 and it was moved to someone elses account (nameservers are changed to *.fp261.parklogic.com) literally a day or two after this, no auction, no redemption. I got fobbed off on live chat...