Dexterity of Liberal in southern rowing crew (7)
I believe the answer is:
sleight
'dexterity' is the definition.
(I know that dexterity can be written as sleight)
'liberal in southern rowing crew' is the wordplay.
'liberal' becomes 'l' (abbreviation).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'southern' becomes 's' (abbreviation).
'rowing crew' becomes 'eight' (crew of eight rowers).
's'+'eight'='seight'
'l' inserted into 'seight' is 'SLEIGHT'.
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for sleight that I've seen before include "Tricky cunning" , "Dexterity (usually of hand)" , "Artful trick" , "Skilful deception" , "distraction?" .)