Cried sadly upon finishing last, would you believe? (6)
I believe the answer is:
credit
'believe?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'cried sadly upon finishing last' is the wordplay.
'sadly' is an anagram indicator.
'upon' says to put letters next to each other.
'finishing last' becomes 't' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'cried' anagrammed gives 'credi'.
'credi'+'t'='CREDIT'
'would you' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for credit that I've seen before include "Positive bank balance" , "Money available for a client to borrow" , "gives you a good reputation" , "This bank balance is a plus" , "Believe; acknowledgement" .)