Confining serpent’s victim to pit below not awfully fair (2,3,5)
I believe the answer is:
on the level
'fair' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'confining serpent's victim to pit below not awfully' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
an anagram of 'not' is 'ont' which is present in the answer.
'serpent's victim' could be 'eve' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'eve' is located in the answer.
'pit' could be 'hell' and 'hell' is found in the remaining letters.
No letters remain.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for on the level that I've seen before include "No tipping" , "Fair; honestly speaking" , "Some horse racing is" , "Honest, truthful (colloq.)" , "Honest - genuine" .)