Bridge master gets a beating (8)
I believe the answer is:
spanking
'a beating' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'bridge master' is the wordplay.
'bridge' becomes 'span' (synonyms).
'master' becomes 'king' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'span'+'king'='SPANKING'
'gets' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spanking that I've seen before include "Very good" , "Outstanding - traditional punishment for children?" , "procedure for maintaining discipline!" , "making one smart" , "Lively" .)