Though young and innocent, they can beat a bachelor (5)
I believe the answer is:
lambs
'they can beat a bachelor' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'though young and innocent' is the wordplay.
'though young' becomes 's' (I can't explain this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'innocent' becomes 'lamb' (I've seen this before).
's' put after 'lamb' is 'LAMBS'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for lambs that I've seen before include "See 17" , "Young sheep" .)