County club needing several runs to lead (8)
I believe the answer is:
somerset
'county' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'club needing several runs to lead' is the wordplay.
'club' becomes 'set' (**).
'needing' says to put letters next to each other.
'several' becomes 'some' ('some' can be similar in meaning to 'several').
'to lead' suggests taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'runs' is 'r'.
'some'+'r'='somer'
'set' after 'somer' is 'SOMERSET'.
(Other definitions for somerset that I've seen before include "SW county" , "English territory" , "County; acrobat move" , "Wells's county" , "Rome sets up in this English county" .)