Young fellow to clear patch of heather? (9)
I believe the answer is:
stripling
'young fellow' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'clear patch of heather?' is the wordplay.
'clear patch of' becomes 'strip' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'heather?' becomes 'ling' ('ling' can be a synonym of 'heather').
'strip'+'ling'='STRIPLING'
'to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for stripling that I've seen before include "Young man" , "Lad" , "Youth" , "youngster" , "Young boy" .)