Cryptic crossword No 3,823
Sat 22 Aug 2026, set byPodger
Special Instructions: Populating the grid will reveal a "bonus ball" which might be clued, "Extravagantly, Sean chilled riesling and vouvray – things aren’t so bad!" (5,5,3,1,6,6)
Across
- Lionel Messi’s top massage includes old aromatherapy product (5,3)
- Blue cart overturns in shipbuilding facility (4,4)
- “Shut up!”’s bad language (6)
- Repeated three times - there's a bomb outside! (8)
- Man who built dyke left waste (5)
- Plot overthrow of terrible ruler by crowd (8)
- Having nothing to do, setter would fish (6)
- Amusing Thurber character gets facelift, perhaps? (5)
- A type of rock that’s pleasing to the ear (6)
- Odysseus’ home – it initially had a King before independence (6)
- Giants beat Dolphins at last after interminable match (6)
- British and American spies conceal odd features of their bugs (8)
- Couple discovered rattan chair that has lost appearance (6)
- Anonymous writer backed that thing on X from the get-go (2,6)
Down
- Plant (a large hollow one) (4)
- Fairground ride created by Disney with a lot of love (7)
- Weirdo student follows rum with nip of brandy and a port (7)
- Academy is upset by film that is dropping writer (6)
- Aussie native revealed three quarters of skin is covered in terrible acne (7)
- French delicacy - Parisien is eating a load (8)
- Children in great schools firstly are fags (4)
- Darts’ champion’s issue about length (7)
- Vacant expression on recruit's face after Georgia and Germany get ready to fight (2,5)
- The extent to which one can see in Tbilisi fog between six and end of day (10)
- Perhaps shoe turned up under butter dish? (7)
- French accountant tucked into sparkling wine and an Italian white (8)
- Year one on Oxford course ending in failure? Marvellous! (6)
- Insects bit me inside accommodation (10)
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