Played right in middle of mere and died (6)
I believe the answer is:
larked
'played' is the definition.
(larking is a kind of playing)
'right in middle of mere and died' is the wordplay.
'right' becomes 'r' (common abbreviation).
'in middle of' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'mere' becomes 'lake' (I've seen this before**).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'died' becomes 'd'.
'r' inserted within 'lake' is 'larke'.
'larke'+'d'='LARKED'
(Other definitions for larked that I've seen before include "Frolicked about like early bird" , "Played around like early bird" , "Frolicked in birdland" , "Romped like early bird" , "Sported about like early songbird" .)