Toughie No. 26 — cryptic crossword

A toughie puzzle: 40 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. Fungus and, behold, a sour cherry (7)
5. Tail wagging, how sad! (6)
9. Post office admitting to a hot snap (5)
12. Trees planted out for a fresh start (5)
13. Celebrity hunters cooking up a pizza rap (9)
14. Extras found in leftover stew (5)
15. Vulgar feeling gives good judgement (6,5)
16. Two, in Rome, concealed by conduit (3)
17. Right by the mountain hospital — Fiennes, say (5)
19. Grand pies baked and getting about (9)
21. Service on land gives crushing defeats (9)
24. Dance of the shifting umbra (5)
25. Native American, by the sound of it, goes to law (3)
27. Coming after second, qualification gives a grilling (5,6)
31. Bedding partly concealed in Berlin entrance (5)
32. Police had one as a heroin substitute (9)
33. Aim for the tip (5)
35. Homes for some honest strangers (5)
36. Scraps when huts are flooded by the river (6)
37. Not a sound when license is abused (7)

Down

1. Humus layer is mostly extra (3)
2. Looks like a rebel mess, stirred (9)
3. Card game admitting teetotaller is a lottery (5)
4. Objects to work and models (7)
5. Leading players who only come out at night (5)
6. Charger's whisker makes stuffing for a sofa (9)
7. Given medicine, reportedly slept (5)
8. Serving at table, ready for anything: a stalling tactic (7,4)
10. Endless sanctuary to possess (4)
11. Frank, er, first man in (6)
15. Gene carriers? Wildly smooch more, son! (11)
18. Core of a country! (9)
20. Lost in memoirs! (9)
22. Horn is oddly shaped on thick-skinned beasts (6)
23. Gloom of a low headland (7)
26. Tenant losing his head breaks in (5)
28. Skins, and keeps out of sight (5)
29. Parent abandoning father, torn (4)
30. Send down some latex pellets (5)
34. Draw a bond (3)

More: Toughie cryptic crosswords.

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