They take place in order to check cross-examinations (8)
I believe the answer is:
recounts
'they' is the definition.
Both the answer and definition are plural nouns.
Perhaps there's a link between them I don't understand?
'take place in order to check cross-examinations' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'take' could be 'rec' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'rec' is found in the answer.
'order' could be 'o' (abbreviation e.g. in British honours OM, OBE etc.) and 'o' is located in the answer.
'cross' could be 't' (shape) and 't' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'uns' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for recounts that I've seen before include "Narrates" , "Checks vote numbers again" , "Tells (story); election checks" , "Trounces in second aggregations of votes" , "Describes" .)