Clues for ten thematically linked entries (all single words) have been left out.
 

Across

9    Hot-rod awry? — fancy not being this (10)
14    Jackass regularly rejected 60s music (3)
18    Behind in award, finally going ahead (5)
20    Get better poet to enter competition (7, two words)
22    Venture around the City, not much of an area (7)
24    Extremely engaging men in ladies’ underwear — crikey! (7)
25    Worries about ship holding water capsizing (5)
26    Fight animals back, avoiding river (5, hyphened)
28    Enduring a lot of cobblers? (7)
31    Turned towards one’s love — British poetry (7)
33    Emphatically, anybody feels no wrong (7)
37    Model with a group...