Three quarters of team recognise shape (8)
I believe the answer is:
crescent
'shape' is the definition.
(crescent is a kind of shape)
'three quarters of team recognise' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'quarters' could be 'es' and 'es' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
(Other definitions for crescent that I've seen before include "Curved row of houses" , "New moon shaped" , "Islamic emblem - shape as of moon" , "Way" , "Curved shape of the moon in first quarter" .)