Straight away, this place is out of contention (7)
I believe the answer is:
nowhere
'out of contention' is the definition.
(as in a competitor going nowhere)
'straight away this place' is the wordplay.
'straight away' becomes 'now' (I've seen this before).
'this place' becomes 'here' (I've seen this before).
'now'+'here'='NOWHERE'
'is' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for nowhere that I've seen before include "Out of the running" , "remote location" , "... and the rest ____"" , "unplaced" , "Miles behind!" .)