The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 5 letter word HARD LINES
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
H
A
R
D
L
I
N
E
S
More clues leading to the result HARD LINES
- Difficult words to learn? Bad luck!
- What actor finds difficult to learn? Bad luck!
- Are they tricky for actor to learn? Too bad
- Unlucky players might stumble over them
- Unlucky to be taken by negotiator
- Player’s challenge? I sympathise
- Sympathetic words for inflexible soprano
- Tough lads in her ensemble
- Script full of tongue-twisters? Bad luck!
- What thespian finds tough to memorise brings bad luck
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Unlucky/players might stumble over them" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case unlucky/players might stumble over them = hard lines.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.