Cryptic crossword No 3,843

Across

Cuts of diamonds? (8)
One investigating the dead deem axe criminal suspect (7,8)
When working together, the sky's the limit? (8)
Floored commercial stores' complex layout (6)
Curiously entrusted men as tyrannist's no. 1, they're quite downplaying (15)
How to supply pets? (4,4)
Organs in opening of zombie film crowded exits (8)
Split before marriage finally gets violent (6)
Performative pieces from soul music group (6)
Basenji beast guards kid (4)
Friend abroad in journey with French friend (5)
State test of intelligence features right answer (4)
Exterior of dull mantles are colourless to begin with (6)

Down

Thoughts of zero alienating served up by society (15)
Electrical conductor with unknown use in action? (4)
Joint I have in disco (4)
Picture sort with Hepatitis C if identified carrying (3-2)
Biblical rules condemn Matt's men with difficulty (3,12)
American basketballer has shanty for audience (4)
Top plagiarist heading Times (4)
Wrongly mistaken over and over again, help me understand! (4,2,4,5)
Hobby that collects cuttings of magazines in bits (5,10)
Get first by a landslide with maybe one-nil for a change (3,2,1,4)
Covers I gathered on beds (10)

Vanilla has provided annotated solutions for this crossword.

1 comment

18 hr ago

Hi Vanilla, this feels like a puzzle with multiple examples of things ending in -gram! Congrats on getting it all to work- though for me the long solutions would have been more interesting with more variety of clue types. I picked out 10a, 18a, 12d, 13d and 23d as my favourites. I’m afraid I couldn’t make sense of the def for 14a or the wordplay for 3d, which didn’t seem to add up. Cheers.

Cryptic crossword No 3,843

Thu 27 Aug 2026, set byVanilla