The pools could disguise these awful pits (8)

I believe the answer is:

potholes

'awful pits' is the definition.
(pits or holes in a road)

'the pools could disguise these' is the wordplay.
'could disguise these' is an anagram indicator (a disguised version of the letters).
'the'+'pools'='thepools'
'thepools' is an anagram of 'POTHOLES'.

(Another definition for potholes that I've seen is " underground caves".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.

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