With spades gathered, should you and I look for water? (5)
I believe the answer is:
dowse
'look for water?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'with spades gathered should you and i' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'with' could be 'w' (abbreviation) and 'w' is located in the answer.
'spades' could be 's' (abbreviation in card games) and 's' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'doe' 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 dowse that I've seen before include "Look for water with a divining rod" , "try to find water" , "Search for water using hazel twig" , "Search for water using hazel rod" , "Search for underground water using rod" .)