Barney runs pub in centre (7)
I believe the answer is:
rhubarb
'barney' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'runs pub in centre' is the wordplay.
'runs' becomes 'r' (cricket abbreviation).
'pub' becomes 'bar' (both are drinking establishments).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'centre' becomes 'hub' (hub is a kind of centre).
'bar' inserted into 'hub' is 'hubarb'.
'r'+'hubarb'='RHUBARB'
(Other definitions for rhubarb that I've seen before include "Fruit - nonsense!" , "extra speech?" , "Vegetable used as fruit" , "rot" , "Garden plants with fleshy stalks or slang nonsense" .)