Champion desperately needed form regularly (8)
I believe the answer is:
defender
'champion' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'desperately needed form regularly' is the wordplay.
'desperately' indicates an anagram.
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternate letters of 'form' are 'fr'.
'needed'+'fr'='neededfr'
'neededfr' with letters rearranged gives 'DEFENDER'.
(Other definitions for defender that I've seen before include "Back" , "One who takes up the cause of another" , "One who protects from danger or takes one's side" , "supporter" , "One who protects others" .)