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If the answer to 17a were a cryptic clue, the answer might be tuo. 9 down definition is an old word for knew, which when an s is stuck on the fromt is a word for mugged, but not in the sense of robbing someone, more in the sense of preparing for something.
Any hint on what the coincidences relate to?

My 35a, though it intersects with the unclued column, is 11 letters long, not 12. Is that correct?

Also, maybe a silly question, but is it safe to assume that unchecked letters are never replaced? If so, it would have helped if the preamble had talked about resolving clashes, rather than simply replacing letters.

Simonsays, following your hint for 9d, I get SCOUTH, but that means free range, scope or plenty.

29d remains a total mystery, despite the hints here. Are we supposed to do 12 minus 8? I've searched for every prickly shrub I can think of.

Finally, is the naval officer in 36a real or fictional?

Thanks and sorry for the long post but it's getting to the point where I can't waste any more time on this.

orson - try googling flare gun for 36ac, 29dn involves archaic measures

Thank you, planks. I had tried googling that name before along with various combinations of naval officer, american, US, etc but with no luck.

Olrson - we cut is W then a Hebrew measure (first letter H)

Dryden, don't give up!

1. You are right, but you're only half way to solving the unclued entry. Unfairly, perhaps, a substitution *is* required in *one* of the intersecting across clues.

2. Where a grid entry appears to have either limited or no potential for substitution, you need to keep in mind *not only* that two entries remain unchanged *but also* that the preamble doesn't say that substitutions will only occur in intersecting cells. It also doesn't say that clashes, where they do occur, must be resolved in favour of one of the two that initially appear!

3. The 'shortened' entries aren't shortened.

This is a brilliantly constructed puzzle that I thought at first was unsolvable. The only way I got there was to write out all the (apparently) possible clashing *and* non-clashing possibilities and stare at them for a very long time.

The required pairs do indeed read non-consecutively, but my breakthrough came from studying the downs first; I've given all the other thematic hints I can, short of spelling everything out, in my earlier posts.

Good luck!

Ionacarr - can you confirm whether the unclued entry is in fact pairs of letters?

Unclued: it is and it isn't!

Presumably the longer one "hides" the shorter one.

Just as I was about to give up the pairs of letters and unclued entry suddenly made sense. Somebody referred to a novel earlier in the thread? I have no idea what novel that might be.