Twirling sticks carried by band from England (9)
I believe the answer is:
sassenach
'england' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'twirling sticks carried by band from' is the wordplay.
'twirling' says the letters should be written backwards.
'sticks' becomes 'canes' (cane is a kind of stick).
'carried by' is an insertion indicator.
'band from' becomes 'sash' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'canes' reversed gives 'senac'.
'senac' put into 'sash' is 'SASSENACH'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sassenach that I've seen before include "who comes from England?" , "Englishman, Lowlander" , "Uncomplimentary Scots term for an Englishman" , "English person (to a Scot)" , "In Scotland, English" .)