Was Mark held back by one playing an adventurer? (3,6)
I believe the answer is:
tom sawyer
'one playing an adventurer?' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'was mark held back' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
an anagram of 'was' is 'saw' which is located in the answer.
'mark' could be 'm' and 'm' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'toyer' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'by' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tom sawyer that I've seen before include "American hero" , "Mark Twain's adventurous boy" , "Work" , "Mark Twain character" , "Boy whose Adventures were recorded by Mark Twain" .)