Crossword Genius

This vagrant touring Hampshire town heading for Fareham fast (4,4,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hand over fist

'fast' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'this vagrant touring hampshire town heading for fareham' is the wordplay.
'vagrant' indicates an anagram (vagrant can mean wandering around).
'touring' means one lot of letters goes inside another (tour can mean to go around).
'hampshire town' becomes 'andover' (I've seen this before).
'heading for' suggests taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'fareham' is 'f'.
'this' anagrammed gives 'hist'.
'andover'+'f'='andoverf'
'hist' placed around 'andoverf' is 'HAND OVER FIST'.

(Other definitions for hand over fist that I've seen before include "In large amounts and swiftly" , "making steady gains" , "(Make, lose or spend money) very rapidly" , "(E.g. make money) very easily" , "Rapid rate of money-making" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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