Equally willing to save face in pointless activity (1,4,4)
I believe the answer is:
a mugs game
'pointless activity' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'equally willing to save face' is the wordplay.
'equally' becomes 'as' (synonyms).
'willing' becomes 'game' (game can mean willing to do something).
'to save' is an insertion indicator.
'face' becomes 'mug' (informal term for face).
'as'+'game'='asgame'
'asgame' enclosing 'mug' is 'A MUGS GAME'.
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for a mugs game that I've seen before include "something a fool would do?" , "competition one's likely to lose?" , "Something only fools would do" , "Drinking" , "It's futile" .)