Cryptic crossword No 3,702

Special Instructions: A reformed character?

Across

Mart sounds queer (6)
Marijuana: the market cops curse (8)
Carried out inside jobs with saw (6)
Swell and start to turn rancid (4)
Amazingly no cut or rip or decay (10)
Vehicle used in filming dwarf galaxy? (5,3)
Liar! Initially favourite is Binface before election result (6)
Rich person spends a shilling to get purse (5-3)
Sugar daddy organised cab for teen (10)
Politician's relief a gang got smashed (5,6)
Harvest some mature apples (4)
Laughs about wife in tweets (8)
Wanting more, Guy on vacation smuggles grass (6)

Down

Head of Brixton Costa experienced and open to offers (8)
Stop virus spreading over Norway (4)
HR recruits American ahead of Poles for Knightsbridge store (7)
Councils standing order reviews blocked by leader of Independents (7)
Eccentric gran entertains family with original sexual positions (8)
I'm voting for Ray C Wild, it could be a landslide (6,2,7)
Helps dealer with pack mule (4)
Re Tice stag party supplying fags (10)
Chance it and catch a fast train (4,1,5)
Clearpay official conceals bribe (6)
Distemper originated with captured penguin maybe (7)
Inland Revenue stops Swift bootlegging (6)
Russian author's book van crashes (7)

spider has provided annotated solutions for this crossword.

4 comments

spider

Setter2 mo ago

Any perceived link between 15a and some of the other solutions is purely coincidental

Sisyphus

2 mo ago

Thanks Spider, I enjoyed this, chuckled at the 15a ref, with faves including 9a, 12a, 3d, 17d and 20d. I found the puzzle a bit heavy on anagrams and hiddens. (Personally I tend to reserve hidden clues for difficult words as they are probably the easiest type of clue to solve, and would suggest max of two per puzzle, with extra allowance for reversed hiddens; also would try to keep anagram count below 25% of total clues.) One more thing…

2 replies

Last reply 2 mo agoView thread

Cryptic crossword No 3,702

Sat 18 Jul 2026, set byspider