Figure crossing river suffered surge in west (6,4)
I believe the answer is:
severn bore
'surge in west' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether it can be defined by this definition.
'figure crossing river suffered' is the wordplay.
'figure' becomes 'seven' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'crossing' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation for river).
'suffered' becomes 'bore' (I've seen this before).
'seven' enclosing 'r' is 'severn'.
'severn'+'bore'='SEVERN BORE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for severn bore that I've seen is " Tidal effect visible near Gloucester".)