Toughie No. 24 — cryptic crossword

A toughie puzzle: 42 clues on a 15×15 grid. Solve it online — check your answers as you go, ask for a hint, and read how each clue works once it is solved.

Across

1. Cash in on a beat for the graduate recruitment drive (4,5)
6. Understand a small branch (4)
9. Iotas scattered about Rome's old port (5)
12. Oscar swimming with killers (5)
13. What the faithful must toe, and what neighbours once shared (5,4)
15. Looks up to the badly misread (7)
16. Greek city taking in a twitch — the art of government (8)
17. Relaxed in the fairest edition (6)
18. Investigations — one squire in trouble (9)
21. A nasty time was intended (5)
23. Sharp taste taking in a western accent (5)
24. A shooter with talc makes explosive stuff (9)
25. Separate the cad, who is upset (6)
29. Invoice for charged particles in huge figures (8)
31. Eric harbouring a rat is unpredictable (7)
33. Spread one for Rita, a cocktail (9)
34. Climber on the ceiling with an eye for flies (5)
35. Unit of light in a glum ending (5)
36. For example, small states (4)
37. The elders, shattered, were protected (9)

Down

1. Raise the tip, a matter for debate (4,5)
2. Anaesthetic for the pub (5)
3. Scrambled integers hold time, going back to zero (9)
4. Emptying the case with peacekeepers doing the stuffing (9)
5. Sleeping quarters in Tudor mansion (4)
6. Stile knocked down for the roof coverings (5)
7. Squander, we hear, with a group — what goes round the middle (9)
8. Hunger seen in ogre edging forward (5)
10. Excitement in prison (4)
11. What's on the wheel? Weary, we hear (4)
14. What starts a discount sale! (3)
19. Journal shows mercy to the learner in the year (9)
20. Nicest day arranged by the crime ring (9)
21. Idle about, not heavy, yet work a second job (9)
22. Beat corn, becoming ancient on the doorstep (9)
25. Veranda messed up, hiding the titled ladies (5)
26. Sugar refined by the hundred-eyed watchman (5)
27. Roughly force in! (4)
28. Head off a portion and run (4)
29. Bishop in trouble at the outset — just a scrap (3)
30. Happen to be the officer in charge of a dog (5)
32. Fit of temper turning up in the cans (4)

More: Toughie cryptic crosswords.

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