Crossword Genius

Catch hooligan pinching head of Repton’s floor-covering (9)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

hearthrug

'floor-covering' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'catch hooligan pinching head of repton's' is the wordplay.
'catch' becomes 'hear' (I've seen this before**).
'hooligan' becomes 'thug' (I've seen this before).
'pinching' means one lot of letters goes inside another (taking inside).
'head of' says to take the initial letters.
The initial letter of 'reptons' is 'r'.
'thug' enclosing 'r' is 'thrug'.
'hear'+'thrug'='HEARTHRUG'

(Other definitions for hearthrug that I've seen before include "One floored by blaze" , "Carpet by fireplace" , "floor-covering" , "Mat near fire" , "Carpet in front of fire" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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