Being soft on Enid, perhaps, carried a torch (5)
I believe the answer is:
pined
'carried a torch' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to competing as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'being soft on enid perhaps' is the wordplay.
'being soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for piano, 'soft').
'on' says to put letters next to each other.
'perhaps' indicates anagramming the letters.
'enid' is an anagram of 'ined'.
'p'+'ined'='PINED'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pined that I've seen before include "Languished, yearned" , "Longed; wasted (away)" , "Starved" , "Became ill with longing" .)