Cryptic crossword clue
Nearly last, team let up in scrummaging 11

The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 11 letter word PENULTIMATE

I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
P
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Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Nearly last" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case nearly last = penultimate.
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.

What does PENULTIMATE mean?

PENULTIMATE noun
  1. A penult, a next-to-last thing, particularly:
PENULTIMATE adjective
  1. (in United States usually formal) Next to last, second to last; immediately preceding the end of a sequence, list, etc.
  2. Of or pertaining to a penult.
  3. Relating to or denoting an element of a related collection of curves that is arbitrarily close to a degenerate form.

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