Threw party, embracing new game (8)
I believe the answer is:
handball
'game' is the definition.
(I know that handball is a type of court game)
'threw party embracing new' is the wordplay.
'threw' becomes 'had' ('have' can be a synonym of 'throw').
'party' becomes 'ball' (ball is a kind of party).
'embracing' is an insertion indicator.
'new' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation eg NT for New Testament).
'had'+'ball'='hadball'
'hadball' placed around 'n' is 'HANDBALL'.
(Other definitions for handball that I've seen before include "Offence from soccer" , "Game played in a walled court" , "kind of foul" .)