They get beaten up in a mine skirting motorway (7)
I believe the answer is:
timpani
'they get beaten' is the definition.
The definition suggests an adverb but the answer is not.
'up in a mine skirting motorway' is the wordplay.
'up' says the letters should be written in reverse (in down clue: letters go upwards).
'mine' becomes 'pit' (down the pit**).
'skirting' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'motorway' becomes 'm'.
'in'+'a'+'pit'='inapit'
'inapit' going around 'm' is 'inapmit'.
'inapmit' back-to-front is 'TIMPANI'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for timpani that I've seen before include "Percussion section" , "Something making drumming noise" , "PM, I ain't (anag.)" , "Main pit (anag) - drums" , "part of kitchen?" .)