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17D. Collaboration about getting laughs (7)
? ? ? ? ? T ?

12A. Fight with Tessa, wildly, for the best places (3-5)
? O ? S ? A ? S
22A. When the boy got the cane unexpectedly for some correspondence (9)
? S ? ? ? A ? ? ?
23A. Bird talk (4)
? ? A ?

23 CHAT

12 looks like "hot-spots", but your A would have to be wrong, and I haven't parsed it yet anyway.

SEATS is better than SPOTS

............and BOX is better than HOT!

12 across: box seats

23 across: chat

Ca hoots?

Assonance ?

22 across: assonance?

Thanks all, much appreciated.