Crowd control running short at first in Surrey town (7)
I believe the answer is:
reigate
'surrey town' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'crowd control running short at first' is the wordplay.
'crowd' becomes 'gate' (gate can refer to the crowd for a sporting event).
'control' becomes 'rein' (rein is a kind of control).
'running short' means to remove the last letter.
'at first' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'rein' with its last letter taken away is 'rei'.
'gate' after 'rei' is 'REIGATE'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for reigate that I've seen before include "English town" , "Surrey town" , "place in Surrey" .)