Half-hearted pledge about favourite I have that's on a par with rivals (11)
I believe the answer is:
competitive
'half-hearted' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adjectives. Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'pledge about favourite i have that's on a par with rivals' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'about' could be 'c' (abbreviation for circa) and 'c' is found within the answer.
'favourite' could be 'pet' (synonyms) and 'pet' is present in the answer.
'i' is within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for competitive that I've seen is " Combative, vying".)