She records a century by a famous batsman (5)
I believe the answer is:
clara
'famous batsman' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'she records a century by a' is the wordplay.
'she records' becomes 'lar' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'a century' becomes 'C' (common abbreviation).
'by' says to put letters next to each other.
'lar' after 'c' is 'clar'.
'clar'+'a'='CLARA'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for clara that I've seen before include "Schumann" , "- - Bow, silent film star" , "Home town of the Taoiseach" , "-- Bow, silent film actress" , "Butt" .)