A few players romp back to the start (4)
I believe the answer is:
trio
'a few players' is the definition.
(group of three musicians)
'romp back to the start' is the wordplay.
'romp back' becomes 'rio' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'start' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'the' is 't'.
'rio' after 't' is 'TRIO'.
(Other definitions for trio that I've seen before include "Chamber group" , "(Composition for) three performers" , "Piece for three players" , "Musical group" , "Beethoven's 'Archduke', for example" .)