Group covering English cloth in tape? (9)
I believe the answer is:
recording
'tape?' is the definition.
(tape is a kind of recording)
'group covering english cloth' is the wordplay.
'group' becomes 'ring' (a ring is a criminal organisation).
'covering' is an insertion indicator.
'english' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'cloth' becomes 'cord' (cord is a kind of cloth).
'e'+'cord'='ecord'
'ring' placed around 'ecord' is 'RECORDING'.
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for recording that I've seen before include "Transcription" , "Writing down or registering electronically" , "Eg, something on CD" , "Tape" , "Taping" .)