The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 1 plus 4 plus 4 letter word A HIGH HAND
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
A
H
I
G
H
H
A
N
D
Buddy explains!
The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.