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17a the misdirection means reversal.

24d I read as a triple def. “Set off” as you might a device of some sort. Journey and mistake are more obvious.

ah, i had got 17 (though i had never come across the word). i misread the question as 20, for some reason (which I'm still puzzled about)

Jono beat me to it. Funny though that in your earlier discussion, the first definition of 24d is relevant.

Given my post @6 was over 12 hours ago, I’ll now say that my first answer to 22a was FIDDLE.

DD (doctor of divinity) in FILE (case). Fiddle, as in “fiddle the books” so “wrongly interfere with”.

jono
FIDDLE is pretty good! (It reminds me of Tommy's Uncle Ernie...)

Thanks everyone for your help.

FWIW I thought 20a was an absolutely brilliant clue. Like having 5 aces in a poker game.

24d “falls” into place as you will see after recognizing that 3 definitions of the same word are provided. Enjoy your xxxx!

Me too! Great minds etc…