Held firmly and beaten (8)
I believe the answer is:
strapped
'beaten' is the definition.
(strapping is a kind of beating)
'held firmly' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'held' could be 'trapped' (trapping is a kind of holding) and 'trapped' is present in the answer.
A single letter 's' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'and' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for strapped that I've seen before include "Like one who may need a loan" , "broke" , "not generating enough cash?" , "- - for cash (hard up)" , "beaten" .)