The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 4 plus 1 plus 7 letter word COME A CROPPER
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
C
O
M
E
A
C
R
O
P
P
E
R
More clues leading to the result COME A CROPPER
- Happen on area with harvester, to fail completely
- Without first two grades, take up barbering and failbadly
- Unusually poor rep came round clubs to suffer a fall
- Restored cameo parts cut by theatre about to fail
- Fail company, heartless menace right to be arrested by a policeman
- Fail to arrive, having run into a policeman
- Reach one working on land and take a tumble?
- Fail to show up a hairdresser?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "failbadly" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case failbadly = come a cropper.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.