Cryptic Clue

[fortis70]

Act placidly and urge others to finish (5,4)

[aelmpvw]

any letters placed?

[fiction-factory]

_ o _ _ _ / _ _ _ s

[fiction-factory]

Easier to read as
? o ??? / ???s

[fiction-factory]

That was the pattern for a very similar clue in the Guardian a few years ago

[fiction-factory]

What letters do you have please, Fortis? And is this the exact clue?
The one I saw in the Guardian was the same but with with another word after 'finish'

[fiction-factory]

dozen eggs works if you add on the missing definition

[fiction-factory]

doze 'n' egg s

[fiction-factory]

Tough one to 'crack'

[aelmpvw]

you're avin a yolk

[fiction-factory]

Ha. My brain was scrambled for a few minutes but then when I saw the full clue was "Act placidly and urge others to finish 000000000000" I had a flash of inspiration and thought the answer was good unoeuf

[aelmpvw]

another crypic to put in my albumen of hard clues

[aelmpvw]

mind you, the dozen 0's made all the difference to solving it

[fortis70]

thank you so much all of you, i got that from peters cryptic site
http://www.biddlecombe.demon.co.uk/puzzles.html
i did not include all the zeros because i hadn't realized they were part of the clue, i thought it was peter's way of a sort of etc., however, it was indeed a tough one and again please accept my thanks for your very patient explanations

[fiction-factory]

I think Peter poached it from the Guardian.