Occasionally starting at eight and finishing at four, perhaps (4,4,2,4)
I believe the answer is:
from time to time
'occasionally' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'starting at eight and finishing at four perhaps' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'starting' could be 'from' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'from' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for from time to time that I've seen is " Now and then".)