Virtue of West player in bridge losing lead (5)
I believe the answer is:
worth
'virtue' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'west player in bridge losing lead' is the wordplay.
'west' becomes 'W' (abbreviation).
'player in bridge' becomes 'north' (bridge players are named after compass points).
'losing lead' means to remove the first letter.
'north' with its first letter taken away is 'orth'.
'w'+'orth'='WORTH'
'of' is the link.
(Other definitions for worth that I've seen before include "Merit - value" , "Value (of something)" , "Throw (anag.)" .)