Making some progress and nearly past it (7,2,1,3)
I believe the answer is:
getting on a bit
'nearly past it' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.
'making some progress and' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'making' could be 'getting' ('get' can be a synonym of 'make') and 'getting' is located in the answer.
'some' could be 'abit' (both can mean a small amount) and 'abit' is found in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is located in the answer.
A single letter 'o' remains which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Another definition for getting on a bit that I've seen is " Rather old".)