Excel in the garden party (5)

I believe the answer is:

outdo

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'excel' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'garden party' is the wordplay.
'garden' becomes 'out' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'party' becomes 'do' (do can informally mean a party).
'out'+'do'='OUTDO'

'in the' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for outdo that I've seen before include "Perform better than (someone)" , "Be better in performance (than another person)" , "going to top?" , "Br superior to (someone)" , "Beat" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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