Make a special item of a fine performance on the river (7)
I believe the answer is:
feature
'make a special item' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both related to thinking as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'a fine performance on the river' is the wordplay.
'fine performance' becomes 'fe' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the' becomes 't' (the is pronounced as a 't' sound in some dialects).
'river' becomes 'ure' (river in Yorkshire).
'a' put after 'fe' is 'fea'.
'fea'+'t'+'ure'='FEATURE'
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for feature that I've seen before include "Magazine article" , "Principal film or non-news article" , "Special attraction" , "Characteristic" , "Aspect; play a part" .)