Liverpool moptop badly desires. Ey! (10)

A most challenging handicap is a traditional part of life in Merseyside (3, 5, 8)

The Grand National's old retainer (5)

Everything all right out there?

I'm not seeing it.

----N

I thought it was going to be Aintree as some kind of anagram out of retainer, but it's not 5 letters and doesn't work as an anagram anyway.

For those of us who haven't quite got the hang of crytic cross word clues, could someone post the answers and how they arrived at them?

Or is it closed shop?

T---N

Certainly, Jason. Any particular clue you'd like to see deconstructed?

That's a very good idea actually, and perhaps a good way to introduce novices into the fold.

All of them?

Jase: you don't deserve it, you sod, with your flounce nostalgia gags, but here goes.

The standard crossword clue comes in two parts, which can be in either order: one part is cryptic and the other is straight. This envelope can be pushed, but not too far and not too often.

Let's start with my first one. The author of The Good Soldier Svejk is HASEK. "Backing", that's KESAH. The cryptic part of the clue is "Stout fighters for autonomy get backing of author of The Good Soldier Svejk, and", which is FAT ETA KESAH AND. The straight part is "destiny intervenes" which is FATE TAKES A HAND.

Oh, and if WE could edit his first post so that newcomers (non-OTFers) might know the "rules" that might be nice.

OK so Lachesis is an anagram (resolved) of "his case is" and had something to do with fate...