Some civic reward for the sailors (4)
I believe the answer is:
crew
'the sailors' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'some civic reward for' is the wordplay.
'some' indicates a hidden word (some of the parts of the word are used).
'CREW' is hidden within 'civic reward for'.
(Other definitions for crew that I've seen before include "A kind of short cut" , "Sailors -- boasted" , "Work gang" , "Ship's operators" , "eight > was sounding shrilly" .)