Play-off row after promise broken by fourth in table (5,6)
I believe the answer is:
world series
'play-off' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are singular nouns.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'row after promise broken by fourth in table' is the wordplay.
'row' becomes 'series' (both can mean a sequence of things).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'promise' becomes 'word' (as in 'I give you my word').
'broken by' indicates putting letters inside (inserted letters break into the word).
'fourth in table' becomes 'l' (ith letter of 'table').
'word' placed around 'l' is 'world'.
'series' put after 'world' is 'WORLD SERIES'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for world series that I've seen before include "Baseball finals" , "sporting championship" , "Baseball play-off (though only involving the US and Canada!)" , "Annual US baseball championship games" , "US baseball matches" .)