Love is returned by crack director (7)
I believe the answer is:
chaplin
'director' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'love is returned by crack' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'nil' (love and nil mean zero in cricket and football).
'is returned' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'crack' becomes 'chap' (chapping is a kind of cracking).
'nil' backwards is 'lin'.
'lin' after 'chap' is 'CHAPLIN'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for chaplin that I've seen before include "Early film star and director" , "Early film comedian" , "Comedian who wore baggy pants and bowler hat" , "Old comedian" , "Charles, early film actor and director" .)