Thanks - I see your point. But without the preposition, the definition would have been 'ruling' - which could be perceived as a verb, therefore the solution would have ended .......ING. Yes?

The fact it *could* be perceived as a verb is irrelevant. It's OK to be misleading in a cryptic clue! Just because the straight def ends in "ING" doesn't mean the solution necessarily has to do so, as long as it's still a valid definition.

Here's one. Let's see how you go:
Attractive ribbon put to sound use [8,4]

That'll be MAGNETIC TAPE, I think.
This is shoddy, but it's late at night -
Poor man, since returning passport to province [8]

Searching for place in England, bugger all good to vegetarians (7 down)

[Noodle] We need the number of letters, not its position in the grid ;o)

Sorry, there are 7 letters, and it is down, although I suppose its verticality is irrelevant.

[Wol] Yes. Is yours Manitoba?

I'd like to see your full deconstruction of that one - I'd be amused if it worked. But no, that isn't it.

Not in England as far as I know, but there is an Omstead County in the US. Not that that helps, but then I'm completely useless at crosswords.

Wol - I believe it's INDIGENT and here's why: INDIGENT=poor (straight def) As for the rest, man=GENT. passport (ID) to province (NI) = IDNI, returning (reversing) to INDI. "since" means put GENT after INDI. Hence, INDIGENT.