Crossword Genius

Counts sheep jumping over the stile, at first (4,2)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

tots up

'counts' is the definition.
(totting up is a kind of counting)

'sheep jumping over the stile at first' is the wordplay.
'sheep' becomes 'tup' (tup is a kind of sheep).
'jumping' is an insertion indicator (some letters jump around or over others).
'at first' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letters of 'over the stile' is 'ots'.
'tup' placed around 'ots' is 'TOTS UP'.

(Another definition for tots up that I've seen is " Adds together".)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.
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