After end of match a communist ran (5)
I believe the answer is:
hared
'ran' is the definition.
(haring is a kind of running)
'after end of match a communist' is the wordplay.
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'end of' indicates one should take the final letters.
'communist' becomes 'red' (red can informally mean communist).
The last letter of 'match' is 'h'.
'h' next to 'a' is 'ha'.
'ha'+'red'='HARED'
(Other definitions for hared that I've seen before include "speed" , "Ran very fast, raced" .)