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All done apart from 17ac

Position head of hunter inside hat (5)

I have T_T_E

I can’t get away from the thought of “tile” for hat but surely “head of hunter” has to be H? The only word I can make though with the letters I have + H is TITHE which doesn’t mean position or incorporate any form of hat.

Alternatively, I can make TITLE which does use TILE but not head of hunter. TITLE seems to fit the definition better (position) but the lack of hunter’s head bugs me.

I can’t think of any alternative typos to HUNTER that might explain the discrepancy. Any thoughts?

17a I put title down as well but at a loss as far as parsing the hunter part of the clue.

Just a thought, but probably too tenuous even for Boz...

Maybe he had “timepiece” in mind but this got translated to “hunter” in his head whilst creating the clue?

That would work quite nicely though, wouldn't it? #
title = position (def)
t - head of timepiece (Hunter)
tile - hat

Maybe?

Maybe. ;-)

It's a bit "indirect" for the Clootie though.

Don't worry, folks. We appear to have until the 15th of December to crack the puzzle, although I think they may be incorrect in thinking that will be a Friday this year.

I may be wrong, but I think both the Christmas and Hogmanay prize crosswords had the same address ("Prize Crossword No 20"?) If so, good luck to the poor soul in the marketing dept. who has to sort them out.

Anyway, somebody really has to get a grip this year. It's not just the crosswords, but the other puzzles, that have been a shambles lately, e.g. 9-er only having 8 letters clued, or WORDS WISE having all the answers printed directly below the options. Both puzzles have been thus blighted on at least 3 occasions each. (The spelling and grammar have become pretty crap in the rest of the paper, too. Proof readers required?)