Central strut spliced by drinkers (9)
I believe the answer is:
mainbrace
'central strut spliced by drinkers' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'central strut' is the wordplay.
'central' becomes 'main' (I've seen this in another clue).
'strut' becomes 'brace' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'main'+'brace'='MAINBRACE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for mainbrace that I've seen before include "rope" , "It's spliced aboard" , "may get spliced at sea" , "that got spliced" , "Part of rigging" .)