Quits ahead of time and ultimately avoids incidents (6)
I believe the answer is:
events
'incidents' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'quits ahead of time and ultimately avoids' is the wordplay.
'quits' becomes 'even' (as in 'call it quits').
'ahead of time' becomes 't' (I've seen this in other clues).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'ultimately' indicates one should take the final letters.
The last letter of 'avoids' is 's'.
'even'+'t'+'s'='EVENTS'
(Other definitions for events that I've seen before include "Incidents, occasions" , "contests" , "promotions" , "competition" , "matters" .)