Force catches ex-convict by reviewing excellent counterfeit (10)
I believe the answer is:
plagiarise
'counterfeit' is the definition.
('counterfeit'->'plagiarize' is in my internal thesaurus and 'ize'->'ise')
'force catches ex-convict by reviewing excellent' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'force' could be 'g' (short for gravity) and 'g' is located in the answer.
'excellent' could be 'ai' (resembles 'A1', old-fashioned term for excellent) and 'ai' is located in the remaining letters.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for plagiarise that I've seen before include "lift!" , "appropriate" , "Cheat by copying; agile pairs (anag.)" .)