Latest thing in ties, perhaps (5)
I believe the answer is:
final
'latest' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'thing in ties perhaps' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'in' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'fal' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for final that I've seen before include "Last in a series of games or contests" , "Coming at the end" , "Concluding" , "Last, ultimate" , "Last match in a competition" .)