Narrowly avoided terrible seminars (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
near miss
'narrowly avoided terrible seminars' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.
'terrible seminars' is the wordplay.
'terrible' is an anagram indicator.
'seminars' anagrammed gives 'NEAR MISS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for near miss that I've seen before include "narrowly averted disaster" , "that doesn't quite hit the target" , "Almost successful shot" , "Close to the target, just a little off" , "Attempt just failing to be successful" .)