Be too much a spectator and so far fail to notice? (8)
I believe the answer is:
overlook
'fail to notice?' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'be too much a spectator and so far' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'be' could be 'look' (looking is a kind of being) and 'look' is present in the answer.
'too much' could be 'over' (I've seen this before) and 'over' is found within the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for overlook that I've seen before include "Give a view from above - miss" , "Keep an eye on" , "Disregard" , "Ignore or fail to see" , "Ignore or fail to notice" .)