Spike pursuing that woman carrying old Oxford tie? (8)
I believe the answer is:
shoelace
'oxford tie?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'spike pursuing that woman carrying old' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'spike' could be 'lace' (synonyms) and 'lace' is found in the answer.
'old' could be 'o' (common abbreviation eg in OE for Old English) and 'o' is found in the answer.
'woman' could be 'she' and 'she' is present in the leftover letters.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for shoelace that I've seen before include "Oxford tie?" , "Tier on foot" , "String for footwear" , "Cord fastener for footwear" , "Footwear tie" .)