Here’s the Solutions grid

Here are the Annotations:

Across: 1 P+I CLUB*, 4 AGHA+ST, 8 SOCCER+R-S*+T, 9 HP, 11 MOB+ELI*+H O M E (Acrostic), 12 Telescopic, 13 SPINACH*-N A, 14 CHARISMA*, 16 SPIES*<<ODE, 18 NIGHT*, 20 KUBER-K, 21 MRS I I KNITS*, 23 REDVAN*+A, 24 &Lit – PAT + I + ENT, 25 FLY<< IMA*, 26 SAUSAGES-S A.

Down: 1 PO<<HOT, 2 IRUBINK*, 3 SINCEREAD*, 5 G LOVE+B-V, 6 AIR P RIO*, 7 AMICEATTACK*-CC, 10 M+OCCASIONS-O, 13 OLACAB P E F*, 15 NAMESIS CA*, 17 Acrostic, 19 G U I D I + N G, 21 Rev Telescopic, 22 TALKS-L+N.

Here’s the link to the “Hall of Fame”

Thanks to “The Esoteric Two” (Kaustav Datta and Vignesh Kiran) for this enjoyable puzzle and to all of you who participated.