Telegraph Cryptic Connections Puzzle For This Week

[Matakari]

Good morning, I'm stumped on all but 3. Answers and parsing for the rest would be appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

Cryptic Connections
In a Cryptic Connections puzzle, five cryptic crossword clues must be solved; their answers can be made from the list of letters given underneath. Once all the clues have been solved, some letters will be unused; these can be arranged to give a word or phrase that links the answers to the five clues.

1 Info put before artist captured by the Spanish officer (7)
2 Against bar (7)
3 Just the thing needed for travel? (6) TICKET
4 Farm animals: 100 missing from northern town (5)
5 Something to eat in ordinary spread (6)

A A A C C C E E E E E E G G G I K K L N N N N O O O R R R S T T T T T U

[Neveracrossword]

Matakari, the use of punctuation in crosswords can be crucial... and deceptive. For Ordnances, the Chambers definition is 'arrangements', so that seemed fine. For the other, Waulk was the only word I could find - and the definition for that is Full, so I think the'ful' in 'wonderful' is for that clue, with the Wonder leading to the Amazement.

[Neveracrossword]

Matakari, I hope my letter counts, descriptions etc all work - I was doing it from memory as my copy is elsewhere!

[Matakari]

Many thanks for your enlightenment, NACW. We can count on Gordon’s devious language skills! Concerning the use of homophones in the puzzle, Gordon tells us:
The Puzzle once again includes homophone definitions; for example, an answer might be defined by ‘pair’; possible answers could include ‘COUPLE’, ‘AVOCADO’ and ‘SHAVE’. In total the Puzzle has 8 homophone definitions – Questions 1 to 5, 6 to 10, 11 – 15, etc., each contain ONE such definition. _ _ _

But I think I have noticed 2 homophones in 3 (B ) and 3 ( C ). To me, “flew” seems to go with INFLUENZA while “across” goes with CELTIC and that’s 2 homophones in 1 to 5. Perhaps, I’m wrong about the homophones? Thanks again in advance for your interpretation of this one.

(A) KOOKABURRA (B) INFLUENZA (C) CELTIC
3… an Australian kingfisher flew across…

[Neveracrossword]

Thanks, Matakari. I don't think there's a homophone involved in Celtic, it's just A cross, a slight misdirection, using punctuation (and relatively common in cryptic puzzles. Flew/flu is definitely a homophone of course, but the other isn't.

[Matakari]

Thank you very much for your insightful explanations, NACW. I enjoyed this one immensely and am now looking forward to the Christmas Spectator. By the way, I'm leaving the South of France tomorrow to spend the Christmas holidays with my son in Crayford and will make sure to bring back my Chambers which I left with him because of baggage weight. Cheers!

[Neveracrossword]

Glad you enjoyed the Christmas puzzle - and glad you didn't need too much help to finish it.
Yes, I am looking forward to the Spectator Christmas special puzzle. I hope it doesn't let me down (and doesn't involve Brewer's). I hope too that you won't post too many batches too soon -you'd be better to spin it out, it'll be three weeks before the next one!

[Matakari]

Ok, NACW, I'll do my utmost to be patient with this one, and hope to make great headway now that I'll have access to Chambers. Thanks again!