Cheating of French clubs, couple from the south (6)
I believe the answer is:
deceit
'cheating' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'of french clubs couple from the south' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de'.
'clubs' becomes 'c' (abbreviation used in card games such as bridge).
'couple' becomes 'tie' (I've seen this in other clues).
'from the south' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (in a down clue, letters go up).
'tie' reversed gives 'eit'.
'de'+'c'+'eit'='DECEIT'
(Other definitions for deceit that I've seen before include "Chicanery" , "Fraud or duplicity" , "Hypocrisy" , "Guile" , "Fraud, cheating" .)