Court disaster, initially, in some deal, say (4)
I believe the answer is:
wood
'some deal say' is the definition.
(deal is a type of wood)
'court disaster initially' is the wordplay.
'court' becomes 'woo' (both can mean to romance someone).
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'disaster' is 'd'.
'woo'+'d'='WOOD'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for wood that I've seen before include "Grove" , "What you might need to play golf" , "Material from trees" , "celebrated conductor" , "Kind of musical instrument" .)