Call up the day before about ball and whip (7)

I believe the answer is:

evocate

'call up' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'the day before about ball and whip' is the wordplay.
'the day before' becomes 'eve' (I've seen this before).
'about' is an insertion indicator.
'ball' becomes 'o'.
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'whip' becomes 'cat' (cat o' nine tails, cat for short is a type of whip).
'o'+'cat'='ocat'
'eve' placed around 'ocat' is 'EVOCATE'.

(Another definition for evocate that I've seen is " Call from the dead".)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.

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