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Hard Going – solution

Filled solution grid

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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This is the website of Paul Henderson, who sets crosswords for The Independent (London) under the pseudonyms Phi, for the Daily Telegraph (London) under the pseudonym Kcit, and anonymously for The Times (London) amongst many other outlets. For a more detailed biography see the About Me page.

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