Crossword Genius

Attend lot and check engineer will finish in good time (4,3,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

beat the clock

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'will finish in good time' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.

'attend lot and check engineer' is the wordplay.
'attend' becomes 'be at' (to be at an event is to attend it).
'and' says to put letters next to each other.
'engineer' is an anagram indicator.
'lot'+'check'='lotcheck'
'lotcheck' anagrammed gives 'theclock'.
'beat'+'theclock'='BEAT THE CLOCK'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for beat the clock that I've seen before include "Do something within a given time" , "Finish early" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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