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It’s very difficult but very good. Som really funny Pauline clues 25 19 1 made me laugh. Only 5 left to do. Would appreciate a hint for 5d 1 don’t have an answer for 5a. But the crossers I have are ??o?o?u?s

Birder
5d - definition is a verb not a noun. Was topical in the UK a few years ago. Parses as 3,6

Hi Birder,
5d parses as 3,6. Your crossers are correct. The 3 is the usual three letter word for “for” then a synonym for villains. It’s a word I’ve most commonly seen used in relation to Parliament.

Jono and Rogissimo

I’ve got it thanks to you and hearing about the clown 🤡 responsible on today’s news

Ah yes, birder, and his fever dreams of an ‘aquatic raid’ on the Netherlands. 🤡 indeed!

Thoroughly enjoyed this tricky little beast. A few answers had me groaning once the penny dropped (14/9/10 and 22 especially).

Still have 1d & 6d to complete.

I’m 99% sure that I have 11a and 17d but parsing escapes me.

Any hints gratefully received.

Classy crossword from Paul with plenty of misdirection which I enjoyed(ish)

Totally agree, nothing like a little puerile playground humour to make me chuckle (and I’m nearly 50)

PaulRT
11a ‘tabby’ in the sense of ‘like a tab’
17d parses as an insertion of a word for a quantity of paper in an anagram.

For 6d I’ve taken a word that means (or once meant) ‘then’ and replaced r(ight) with l(eft) to get the name of a town that could be a see (though I'm not sure it is, in fact). Presumably there’s a simpler solution?

1d - the North American native is an animal. I’ve provided a hint for the parsing at 12 above.
6d - the definition is ‘then’ (slightly unusual sense). ‘Not right’ indicates an anagram.