Field sports, initially with copper present (6)
I believe the answer is:
sphere
'field' is the definition.
('sphere' can be a synonym of 'field')
'sports initially with copper present' is the wordplay.
'initially' indicates taking the first letters.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'copper' becomes 'p'.
'present' becomes 'here' ('here' can be similar in meaning to 'present'**).
The first letter of 'sports' is 's'.
's'+'p'+'here'='SPHERE'
(Other definitions for sphere that I've seen before include "Ball shape" , "Orb or globe" , "Shape of the Earth" , "Ball, bubble" , "Province - range" .)