Not winning game, holding a jolly line (9)
I believe the answer is:
charmless
'not winning' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'game holding a jolly line' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'a' is present in the answer.
'jolly' could be 'rm' (jolly can mean a Royal Marine) and 'rm' is located in the answer.
'line' could be 'l' (used when specifying particular lines from a poem) and 'l' is found within the answer.
'game' could be 'chess' (chess game is a kind of game) and 'chess' is located in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for charmless that I've seen before include "Unattractive" , "not winning" , "Lacking any appeal" , "Without attractive features" .)