Close court to Spooner and finish early (3,5)
I believe the answer is:
cut short
'finish early' is the definition.
'cut short' can be an answer for 'finish' (thesaurus). I am not sure about the 'early' bit.
'close court to spooner' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'close' could be 'short' (similar in meaning) and 'short' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'cut' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for cut short that I've seen before include "ended prematurely" , "instruction to army barber" , "Interrupted" , "Abbreviate" , "Abridge" .)