The rationale for the coding is ? to 31 decimal places (giving 32 numbers; the next digit is the first zero): 3.14159 26535 89793 23846 26433 83279 5. Thus 1a moves forward three places, 10a one place, 12a four place and so on up to a shift of five places in 27d. The two unaffected answers (9a TART and 28d FLAN) both use the definition PIE, with the misprints ‘die’ and ‘Poe’, the correct letters thereby spelling PI. PI is also PHI with hard (or H) going.
Yes, there should be a ? in the central square – at the moment I haven’t worked out how to do this in WordPress…
By chance, TART occurs at the position of the decimal point, while FLAN is at the position of that first zero. This was not intended.
The fifteensquared blog of this puzzle is here.
ACROSS
1 ARISTOCRACY; anag. + racy (11)
9 TART; (s)tart; Pie
10 SHOT PUT; shot + up (rev.) + t
12 TAUTED; ute in tad
14 EGG-FLIP; egg f lip
15 MBIRA; b in Mira
16 ZOEAL; 0 in zeal
18 VIVAT; v I VAT
21 BRACE; b race (5)
22 QUEEN; quee(r) n
24 DISCO; disco(very)
27 CREAMER; cre(w) AMer
29 SEA FOX; a f o in sex
30 ASHRAMS; r in a shams
31 OLID; I in old
32 ANAESTHETIC; an aesthetic
DOWN
1 AQUEOUS; ou in a ques(t)
2 SYCEE; CE in sye
3 SQUAT; s qua(in)t
4 JAZZY; ja z z y
5 BLADED; lad in bed
6 OONA; hidden
7 BOOKLETS; boo K let’s
8 VOLK; v o l K
11 RUFFE; ruff(L)e
13 SKUGGING; Ugg in s king
17 RHONCHI; n in rho chi
19 CROFT; cr(op) oft
20 SPONGY; S pongy
23 RHYTA; h in anag.
25 EMBOG; E MB + go (rev.)
26 WONGI; now (rev.) + GI
27 CREE; c ree
28 FLAN; l in fan; pIe
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