For the leaderless, getting out of the ground was a narrow escape (4,5)
I believe the answer is:
near thing
'narrow escape' is the definition.
(something which nearly went badly)
I don't understand the rest of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for near thing that I've seen before include "almost a disaster" , "dangerous" , "Something that barely avoids failure or disaster" , "Narrow escape, missed by a small margin (4.5)" , "Even the short-sighted could plainly see that" .)