Trying time for the church around part of Runcorn (6)
I believe the answer is:
crunch
'part of runcorn' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'trying time for the church around' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'church' could be 'ch' (common abbreviation) and 'ch' is found within the answer.
'around' could be 'c' (abbreviation for 'circa') and 'c' is found within the answer.
The remaining letters 'run' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for crunch that I've seen before include "Moment of truth" , "Crush with the teeth" , "Process (lots of data)" , "Chew something hard" , "Bite noisily - moment of decision" .)