Male at top of excellent club (4)
I believe the answer is:
mace
'club' is the definition.
(mace can mean a club or stick)
'male at top of excellent' is the wordplay.
'male' becomes 'm' (common abbreviation).
'at top of' means one lot of letters go next to another (in a down clue, some letters go on top of others).
'excellent' becomes 'ace' (ace can informally mean very good).
'm'+'ace'='MACE'
(Other definitions for mace that I've seen before include "Staff of office for a flavouring" , "Staff of office and a spice" , "Came to get ceremonial staff" , "Spiked club" , "put on the rack?" .)