Small-town league sides met after game to knock back beers (7,4)
I believe the answer is:
whistle stop
'small-town league sides met after game to knock back beers' is the definition.
I can't tell whether this definition defines the answer.
'league sides met after game to knock back beers' is the wordplay.
'sides' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters) (only the letters on the sides are used).
'met' says to put letters next to each other.
'after game' becomes 'whist' (whist is a card game. I am not sure about the 'after' bit.).
'to knock back' is a reversal indicator.
'beers' becomes 'pots' (large glasses of beer in Australia).
'league' with its middle taken out is 'le'.
'pots' back-to-front is 'stop'.
'le' after 'whist' is 'whistle'.
'whistle'+'stop'='WHISTLE-STOP'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for whistle stop that I've seen before include "brief tour" , "Description of a politician's brief appearance" , "Like hectic tour" , "Fast and with only brief pauses" , "Pause to speak" .)