The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 2 plus 7 letter word COUPS DE THEATRE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
C
O
U
P
S
D
E
T
H
E
A
T
R
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Unexpected events in play" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case unexpected events in play = coups de theatre.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.