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I started this evening and have just finished. I don't mind the thematic repetition since it's some time since the theme last appeared in the Listener.
The one element in the endgame that I'm not entirely happy about is the shaded dots, since the the title concerned does not have 17 in it, whereas all the others begin with 'The 17 of...' so it's thematically different.

Dryden - Check the book they all come from that should resolve your concerns.

Yes, I see now they all come from one appropriately named collection.

Dryden, I applaud your independent timetable. On another webwsite they start at 4pm Friday and not many finish within 8 hrs. If they do manage that, it becomes a badge. On that site I once said that the puzzle took me just 2 hrs. The immediate response was defensive - surely that's not true....I'm no ACD expert, but from my online enquiries, you're right about the pips. In addition, the online reference to 26A doesn't mention a 17D

Regarding the title, the only thing I can come up with is a reference to one of the unclued person's famous headgear. This seems rather tenuous, though.

Hi cloverjo, I believe rickye answered his own question referring to a statement made in one of the 17s by one character to the othet; "Come ............., come" he cried "the game's afoot".

As a relative newcomer to the Listener, I occasionally find myself hitting a brick wall. Such is the case on this occasion.
I have all but one answers to the clues, and have the grid appropriately filled. The theme and the 17s came to me quite by accident but early on.
What I do not have is 16A and any idea of how to reconcile the letters missing from certain answers. Is it in some way relevant that there is no mention of these missing letters in the preamble?

Hi saddleworthian, you should have 5 instances of cells clashing with additional letters which form a word. In each case they are definitions of a word used appropriately in another 17.

Oops, 16a is astral.

Saddleworthian, I don't think there is any relevance attached to the words from clash cells not being mentioned in the preamble. As Gem94 already contributed, they are all synonyms for a word from one of the 17s ('pip'). I gave 2 earlier, the other 3 you should have are 'seed', 'star' and 'spleen'.