Oddly, his place across river is shaped like a ball (9)
I believe the answer is:
spherical
'like a ball' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'oddly his place across river' is the wordplay.
'oddly' is an anagram indicator.
'across' indicates putting letters inside.
'river' becomes 'r' (abbreviation for river).
'his'+'place'='hisplace'
'hisplace' is an anagram of 'spheical'.
'spheical' going around 'r' is 'SPHERICAL'.
'is shaped' acts as a link.
This may not be right. Some or all of it may be part of another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for spherical that I've seen before include "As balls" , "Ball shaped" , "Completely round" , "Ball-shaped" , "Globular" .)