Possible Clues:

• One gets silver service holding posh stewed prune
• One's place is only for a second
• Contestant in second place
• He finishes second in a competition
• Second bowler in approach to wicket?
• Good loser?
• Blue, perhaps, at university who never gets a first
• 5 down thus came second for 6 down
• Just a second He's climbing as fast as he can!
• Athlete at Oxford possibly not the winner