Guardian 25963: Can Any Of You Geniuses Explain...

[Cryptomaniac]

how 9 ac 22ac and 21ac work? They must surely be BETHOUGHT, HANDS ON and JOBLESS. 9 and 22 seem to be part of the theme, but can't see where 'Love, old' fits in 9, almost all of the clue in 22 and where student fits in 21.

[boxtops]

YOu need to give us the clues, please - we don't all have the paper

[Baldric]

Hang on there, I'll just pop out and buy a paper!

[Mamyalynne]

9a Love, old - nevertheless getting into punt (9)

[Mamyalynne]

^Bethought

[Mamyalynne]

21a Student's touching approach? (5,2)

Hands on

22a Be thankful for indulgent sort at bar (7)

Jobless

[Mamyalynne]

Instructions are that in each of these the definition element does not lead to the whole solution, but needs a 'Leading Lady' to be added first.

[dannyk13]

The word geniuses lets me out i'm afraid

[Mamyalynne]

9 I can see two possibles

Though inside BET

or

BETH and Ought

[Mamyalynne]

Apologies

21a is not a themed clue

I can only think that Brummie is using Student and Hand as synonyms, unless others know differently.

[roslyn251254]

22a bless - be thankful for , with JO the leading lady in front.
beth (leading lady) + ought - old synonym for love.

[Cryptomaniac]

Thanks all, but had already worked out these things - and realise what the theme is - apart from Mamyalynne's suggestion that 'student' and 'hand' were used as synonyms, which I still can't really see. Also thanks to Roslyn for 'ought' = 'nothing' = 'love'. My question was how the clues work. Sorry if you didn't have the paper; bit long to reproduce all the clues.

[RogerBear]

The HANDS ON answer refers, I think, to hands-on learning, one way to be a student. But I'm as confused as you are by JOBLESS. Yes, I got JO + BLESS, but how the whole thing is "indifferent sort at bar" baffles me.