Related Clues:

• Unsuccessful competitor
• Unsuccessful contestant
• Victor's opponent
• This competitor getting nearer? Not first!
• Has-been Labour leader rose unsteadily
• No-hoper is nearer being executed
• Look less than half serious, as one generally inept?
• Queen after large, very large failure
• Defeated competitor
• Increasingly profligate, abandoned by one love, is a failure
• Member of defeated team -- not keeper, proverbially
• Sore sort, maybe
• X-O-X line in tic-tac-toe, e.g
• 'The Biggest '
• Tiepolo's Eros is in part a failure