The first offence in arena of conflict? (6)
I believe the answer is:
crimea
'conflict?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how one could define the other.
'the first offence in arena' is the wordplay.
'the first' says to put letters next to each other.
'offence' becomes 'crime' (I've seen this before).
'in arena' becomes 'a' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'crime' next to 'a' is 'CRIMEA'.
'of' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crimea that I've seen before include "'Ukrainian peninsula, site of a 19th-century war (6)'" , "Black Sea region" , "Peninsula in today's Ukraine, site of an 1853-6 war" , "1853-56 war zone" , "Yalta peninsula" .)