Distressing year in Herts town (6)
I believe the answer is:
trying
'distressing' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'year in herts town' is the wordplay.
'year' becomes 'y'.
'in' is an insertion indicator.
'herts town' becomes 'tring' (I've seen this before).
'y' put within 'tring' is 'TRYING'.
(Other definitions for trying that I've seen before include "distressing" , "particularly awkward" , "Testing" , "Essaying" , "Attempting or irritating" .)