Children love very loud running water (9)

I believe the answer is:

offspring

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'children' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'love very loud running water' is the wordplay.
'love' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'very loud' becomes 'ff' (musical abbreviation).
'running water' becomes 'spring' (spring water is a kind of water. I am not sure about the 'running' bit.).
'o'+'ff'+'spring'='OFFSPRING'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for offspring that I've seen before include "Child" , "seed" , "Progeny" , "Young" , "Issue for raising" .)

I've seen this clue in The Globe and Mail.

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