Fence in play area English struggle to get knocked over (7)
I believe the answer is:
receive
'fence' is the definition.
(I know that fence is a more specific form of the action receive)
'play area english struggle to get knocked over' is the wordplay.
'play area' becomes 'rec' (short for recreation ground).
'english' becomes 'E' (abbreviation).
'struggle' becomes 'vie' (to vie is to struggle or contend with).
'to get knocked over' says the letters should be written backwards (I've seen 'getting knocked over' mean this).
'e'+'vie'='evie'
'evie' back-to-front is 'eive'.
'rec'+'eive'='RECEIVE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for receive that I've seen before include "Be presented with" , "Accept, take" , "Accept; greet" , "Be given (something)" , "It's said to be better to give than to do this" .)