Player who'll just beat you to a half of beer?
I believe the answer is:
piper
'player' is the definition.
(piper is a kind of player)
'who'll just beat you to a half of beer?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'beat' could be 'pip' (pipping is a kind of beating) and 'pip' is located in the answer.
The remaining letters 'er' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for piper that I've seen before include "Musical blower" , "oil and gas field" , "Military musician" , "Bagpipes player" , "Musician (paid for a tune?)" .)