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An interesting way of writing clues, and one which takes a lot of unpicking. I have 4 of the 8 thematic answers but am completely stuck on the others. I want a couple of 6-letter answers, but there aren't any not used up already. Grr! Help with 8/29D would be welcome.

8/29 - 'bird' + 'risk' are the defs. 'mining licence' is obscure (a strong wind would be a better def) and this forms part of the 'risk' answer.
the general term (3 letters) for painting forms part of the bird.

It certainly did take a lot of unpicking. I think I had most of the thematic answers and then had to untangle a number of clues to find the 'thematically linked' parts.

Quite a few clues needed a good hard stare before the parsing revealed itself and quite a few, what I call, 'Azed words' in the mix.

Quite tough from Kruger, but ultimately enjoyable. 👍

"Numbers in brackets refer to the space available for the
eventual entry but word counts refer to original answers"

If, for example, the numbers (5,5) appear after the clue - I assume it means there are 5 spaces available for the entry but what and where is the original word count?

Nobody else has queried this so no doubt I just being immensely dim.

The original letter count is unknown since the answer length need not equal the length of the "elsewhere" grid entry.

Hi Buddy, thanks for that but I'm still not sure why there is a reference to a figure that, as you say, isn't given - and how would our understanding or actions change if "but word counts refer to original answers" wasn't included?

For example, if the number in the brackets was (5,5) then from "Numbers in brackets refer to the space available for the eventual entry" we could infer that, while there are 5 spaces allotted for each clue, that is not necessarily how many letters there are in the answer as derived from the wordplay - so why do I need the "but word count ..."?

If the original answer was 2 words, it would say that. (That is a pretty good hint that none of the two word answers are thematic!)

Okay, thanks again Buddy:-)

After 2 days I have finally finished this - I rate this as one of the most difficult puzzles of the year - and the gimmick with the clues is a new one for me, one not to be repeated I hope!!!!!

I seem to remember something similar, on 'mixed couples' in a Guardian Genius a few months ago?