Dashed back to protect English girl from narrow escape (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
near miss
'narrow escape' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'dashed back to protect english girl' is the wordplay.
'dashed' becomes 'ran'.
'back' is a reversal indicator.
'to protect' indicates putting letters inside.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'girl' becomes 'miss' (synonyms).
'ran' in reverse letter order is 'nar'.
'nar' placed around 'e' is 'near'.
'near'+'miss'='NEAR MISS'
'from' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for near miss that I've seen before include "narrowly averted disaster" , "not a success" , "girl next door" , "Almost hitting the target" , "Narrowly avoided collision, not quite on target (4, 4)" .)