Giving a pull for victory in game initially (6)

I believe the answer is:

towing

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'giving a pull' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are present participle verbs, I can't see how they can define each other.

'victory in game initially' is the wordplay.
'victory' becomes 'tow' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'initially' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'game' is 'g'.
'tow'+'in'+'g'='TOWING'

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for towing that I've seen before include "Pulling along (a car)" , "Recovering from breakdown" .)

I've seen this clue in The Irish Independent.

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