Shaft British champion from behind with shout of approval (8)
I believe the answer is:
borehole
'shaft' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'british champion from behind with shout of approval' is the wordplay.
'british' becomes 'b' (abbreviation e.g. in 'BBC').
'champion' becomes 'hero' (synonyms).
'from behind' says the letters should be written backwards.
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
'shout of approval' becomes 'ole' (I've seen this in other clues).
'hero' back-to-front is 'oreh'.
'b'+'oreh'+'ole'='BOREHOLE'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for borehole that I've seen before include "Passage made by a drill, for exploratory purposes" , "An excavation to reach groundwater" , "Something drilled to find water/oil" , "Narrow well" , "(A) deep drilling for oil, water" .)