Rushes to defence of drunken star (5)
I believe the answer is:
darts
'rushes' is the definition.
(darting is a kind of rushing)
'defence of drunken star' is the wordplay.
'defence' becomes 'd' (this might be a standard abbreviation of which I'm unaware).
'of drunken' indicates anagramming the letters (I've seen 'drunken' mean this).
'star' with letters rearranged gives 'arts'.
'd'+'arts'='DARTS'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for darts that I've seen before include "Moves along rapidly" , "Game with board and missiles" , "Tears" , "They are thrown at targets in pubs" , "Shoots" .)