Careful to include king, his consort, and friend to argue with? (8,7)
I believe the answer is:
sparring partner
'careful to include king his' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'consort and friend to argue with?' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'consort' could be 'partner' (synonyms) and 'partner' is present in the answer.
'and' could be 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and') and 'n' is found in the answer.
'friend' could be 'spar' (I have seen 'Close friend' mean 'spar' so perhaps 'friend' could also mean 'spar') and 'spar' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'rig' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sparring partner that I've seen before include "jabber" , "Boxer's opponent during training" , "Argumentative friend" , "hits rehearsed with me?" , "disputatious associate" .)