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GOLDEN OLDIES suggests to me a Sunday afternoon radio show on Local FM with DJs Smashie and Nicey…what does it mean to Skylark?…
The preamble states that:
“A letter must be removed from each of 14 clues before solving; in clue order, these give a title applying to each original member of THE GOLDEN OLDIES. Their collective name appears in the unclued central column; four of their works appear around the border in a clockwise direction. The unchecked perimeter letters can be rearranged to form GET OWN ESQUIRE HOO-HA. In the final grid, solvers must highlight the four initial members of the group (28 cells in total). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended, 18 and 37 are in Collins.”
Four ‘initial’ members of a ‘group’ of ‘golden oldies’…pop-tastic?!
Quite a lot of unclued real-estate – the perimeter and central column…should make for fewer clues to solve and parse for the blog! 39, to be precise. And of those, 14 are going to have an extraneous letter…so approximately 1 in 3.
I made fairly good progress with solving, finding a few of those letters but not making much sense out of them early on. After about 30 minutes, in a couple of sittings, I had most of the grid filled, apart from a few stubborn ones in the top right quadrant, and the thematic perimeter/central column.
The extra letters started looking like they made up: ‘MURDER SHE WROTE’, which got me thinking about Angela Lansbury and the TV show of the same name. So maybe not in the realm of ‘popular beat combos’, then, m’lud?
Around the same time the middle column was filling up: ??EEN?O?CRI?E, and I started looking at the unchecked letters hint, to see where the QU from ESQUIRE might go. Working up the left-hand side and round the corner looked like something ‘MYSTERIOUS’, and along the bottom row it didn’t seem that a QU would make any sense… I don’t remember the exact PDM, but it was a combination of spotting QUEENS OF CRIME down the middle and seeing CHRISTIE coming down next to SAYERS on the right-hand side.
A little ‘detective work'(!) with the remaining perimeter-hint letters, and some Wiki-oogling of bibliographies, came up with the following:
- Agatha CHRISTIE, ‘The Mysterious Mr Quin’
- Dorothy L SAYERS, ‘Whose Body?’
- Ngaio MARSH, ‘Dead Water’
- Margery ALLINGHAM, ‘Sweet Danger’
So, the hint – MURDER SHE WROTE – points to female crime fiction writers, and the title, GOLDEN OLDIES refers to this particular group of four, who are known collectively as the ‘QUEENS OF CRIME’, from the ‘Golden Age’ of Detective Fiction.
I think this was a nice step up in difficulty from the block of four ‘easier’ September EVs, but hopefully not so hard as to deter any of our newer solvers? It incorporates a large amount of thematic material while maintaining grid symmetry – which is sometimes sacrificed to ‘squeeze everything in’.
I learned some new words – MALLING, STYRED, RIGOL, MEINY and TYNDE – and had a lot of fun solving and blogging this one, so many thanks to Skylark.
In my youth I never really got into Dame Agatha, but I do remember avidly devouring many of the adventures of Lord Peter Wimsey by DL Sayers – I think just because a relative who I stayed with occasionally had a whole shelf of them. I’ve never read any Ngaio Marsh, but I am familiar with her because her first name also means a type of New Zealand tree, and the word seems to be much loved by crossword setters!
**Update: There is a ‘setter’s blog’ here, on the Big Dave website, where Skylark gives some background on how the puzzle came into being…
| Across | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clue No | Entry | Extra letter | Clue (definition underlined, (e)extra letter bracketed) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 7 | RELOAD | Replenish kid carrying over fries from time to time in front (6) / RE (alternate letters, I.e. from time to time, of ‘fRiEs’) in front of L_AD (kid) around (carrying) O (over) |
||
| 9 | AIRS |
M |
Reveal soprano (m)utters (4) / AIR (reveal) + S (soprano) |
|
| 10 | EXTOLLED | Lauded former husband blabbed to auditors (8) / EX (former husband) + TOLLED (homophone, i.e. to auditors – TOLD, or blabbed, can sound like TOLLED) |
||
| 11 | TYNDE | Poet’s kindled love ignored by don, yet to be converted (5) / anag, i.e. converted, of D(O)N YET (ignoring O – zero, or love) |
||
| 12 | TAI | Briefly follow fish (3) / TAI( |
||
| 14 | SEME |
U |
Initially (u)sing eggs, most eggs powdered (4) / initial letters of ‘Sing Eggs Most Eggs’ |
|
| 15 | SCAB |
R |
Jock’s cry about cape(r) crust (4) / S_AB (sob, Scottish, i.e. Jock’s) around C (cape) |
|
| 17 | IONA |
D |
Island’s in exhibition, (d)arling (4) / hidden word in ‘exhibitION Arling’ |
|
| 19 | YEARNS | Wants stories about earth (6) / Y_ARNS (stories) around E (earth) |
||
| 20 | STYRED | Ed’s caused trouble, swapping hands in writing Dutch (6) / STYRE (STYLE – writing, changing hands: L – left to R – right) + D (Dutch) |
||
| 21 | MORAG |
E |
Female delay, rag(e) ultimately (5) / MORA (delay) + G (ultimate letter of raG) |
|
| 22 | DOS | Two Spanish feasts (3) / double definition? DOS in Spanish is 2; a DO can be a celebration, or a feast. |
||
| 23 | MEINY | Will’s household is gracious housing a German (5) / M_Y (gracious me!) around (housing) EIN (indefinite article, a, in German) |
||
| 24 | ELTCHI | Turkish ambassador: he’s late regularly meeting Greek character (6) / ELT (regular letters of ‘hE’s LaTe’) + CHI (Greek character) |
||
| 26 | PARSED |
R |
Section in shave(r) department analysed (6) / PAR_E (shave) around S (section), plus D (department) |
|
| 29 | SCAR | Cliff horror curtailed (4) / SCAR( |
||
| 30 | TZAR | Person appointed as an adjudicator set on restricting zone (4) / T_AR (set on) around (restricting) Z (zone) |
||
| 31 | MORE |
S |
Grimace(s) about recipe again (4) / MO_E (grimace) around R (recipe, Latin – take!) |
|
| 33 | ITA | Palm one pill almost (3) / I (one) + TA( |
||
| 34 | RIGOL |
H |
Groove, doctor, (h)owl on vacation (5) / RIG (doctor) + OL (OwL, vacated of its central letter) |
|
| 35 | WITHHELD | Restrained by bore (8) / WITH (by, alongside) + HELD (bore) |
||
| 36 | EMMA | Letter by parent’s novel (4) / EM (letter M) + MA (mother, parent) |
||
| 37 | REAVOW | Again affirm American pledge about coming first (6) / RE (about) + A (American) + VOW (pledge) |
||
| Across | ||||
| Clue No | Entry | Extra letter | Clue (definition underlined, (e)extra letter bracketed) / Logic/Parsing |
|
| 1 | ULTIMA | Word’s ending upset Parisian friend, listless at heart, after university (6) / U (university) + LTIMA (AMI – French, or Parisian, friend + TL – heart, or middle letters, of liSTless, all upset) |
||
| 2 | SOON |
E |
Crossing Ohio, l(e)ad without delay (4) / SO_N (lad) around (crossing) O (Ohio) |
|
| 3 | MALLING | Beating everyone within minutes, good (7) / M_IN (minutes) around ALL (everyone), plus G (good) |
||
| 4 | INTENT |
W |
Determined, (w)in Spanish wine (6) / IN + TENT (Spanish wine) |
|
| 5 | NAYSAYERS | They refuse to speak in slapdash monastery except bubbly Tom (9) / NAY_ERS (anag, i.e. slapdash, of ( |
||
| N/A | QUEENS OF CRIME | Unclued / Thematic deduction |
||
| 6 | WINCH |
R |
Po(r)t choir associate with girls in Scotland (5) / WIN (pot) + CH (choir) |
|
| 8 | ADMASS |
O |
Gather around finale of speed(o) advertising (6) / A_MASS (gather) around D (final letter of speeD) |
|
| 13 | AGEOLD | Ancient article with precious metal around base (6) / A (article) + G_OLD (precious metal) around E (mathematics, logarithmic base) |
||
| 16 | TRACKROAD | Stress right, interrupting flunkey disregarding unknown towpath (9) / T_OAD (flunkey) around (interrupted by) RACK (stress) + R (right) |
||
| 18 | RENEST | Born in lounge, move fledgling to a new home (6) / RE_ST (lounge around) around NE (born, French) |
||
| 22 | DISOWN | Protecting wings of ibis with feathers cast off (6) / D_OWN (feathers) around (protecting) IS (wings, or outer letters, of IbiS) |
||
| 23 | MARSHES | Horses circling quiet swamps (7) / MAR_ES (horses) around (circling) SH (quiet!) |
||
| 25 | HAMLET | Robust tenor crossing master’s village (6) / HA_LE (robust) around (crossing) M (master), plus T (tenor) |
||
| 27 | STIEVE | Strain surrounds tense firm in Glasgow (6) / S_IEVE (strain) around (surrounding) T (tense) |
||
| 28 | TAGMA |
T |
Label male initially (t)aping part of insect’s body (6) / TAG (label) + M (male) + A (initial letter of Aping) |
|
| 32 | THAR |
E |
Finally spot mar(e), missing mobile Himalayan goat (4) / T (final letter of spoT) + HAR( |
|
A nice gentle step up from the September “easier” puzzles. I fell for the red herring of looking for a connection with the TV series but penny dropped once I spotted “The mysterious …” as a likely perimeter phrase, with Wikipedia helpfully filling in the blanks. Having the unchecked perimeter letters was then very helpful in deducing likely titles and then looking for authors. Thanks Skylark for the entertainment and the blog and to mc_rapper for the review.
There was much to appreciate about this puzzle: the theme, the thematic design and the clues. I liked the way that the words and phrases used in the title and preamble did not mislead but did not give anything away either!
I guessed that this would not be about pop groups, but I didn’t know what it was until I had solved 15 clues and had five letters down the middle column. The letters ‘CRI’ in that column and a Q in the set of unchecked letters made me think of Queens of Crime, and that led me to the kind of thematic elements to look for in the main grid and in the perimeter. ALLINGHAM was already there in plain sight (but unseen!), and MARSH was only a letter short.
I was impressed by the gridfill and by the symmetrical grid, more than half of which was filled by the thematic elements. It was inevitable that there would be a number of obscure words. but, even with obscure words and meanings in the clues as well, those instances were not excessive.
All very enjoyable. Thanks to Skylark, and to mc_rapper67 for the blog.
I hadn’t spotted that the grid fill was symmetrical. That was indeed impressive. Thanks to mc-_rapper67 and to Skylark.
I second Stick Insect @1; the difficulty level is being carefully raised. And with the twin demands of symmetry plus a perimeter message and plenty of thematic material (including a Q) it would be unfair to expect the unch message to have thematic relevance.
May I reveal one minor prejudice? Now that Chambers has resumed listing given names and their origin I would prefer that the likes of MORAG be clued by something a bit more specific than “female”, which I think a tad unfairly suggests something like WOMAN or LADY rather than an actual name.
Thanks as always to setter and blogger (I always look forward to your animated grids!)
Thanks so much, mc_rapper, for the feedback and for the impressive grid – I love the way it highlights each book.
Thank you too for the comments, Stick Insect, Alan B, Chalicea and Ifor. So glad it was enjoyable as a solve and I will try to remember not to use female as a definition again.
A late plaudit for this lovely puzzle. I fell for the trap of expecting this to be about some pop group or other, so it was a delight to discover the real theme. I am a serious Agatha Christie fan and have (I think) read all her books, and not once have I correctly identified whodunnit! Fortunately I had more success with this excellent crossword. Thank you Skylark and more, please!
Thanks for the various comments/feedback – much appreciated – especially Skylark for popping by at #5!
As regards ‘perimetral unches’, the last puzzle I blogged – EV 1451 – didn’t give them (admittedly it wasn’t a full perimeter, just top and bottom rows), but they are often given as a potentially useful checklist, and it would take some considerable luck/skill on the part of the setter to weave them into something thematic as well! (or bad luck/malice to make them misleading…)
As regards the animated grids, all credit to fellow blogger kenmac for teaching me how to do these in my early blogging days – a very old-fashioned combination of creaking Microsoft products: Excel, Paint and GIF Animator. There are probably better and sexier apps out there these days, but you can’t teach an old dog new tricks…
Ifor at #4 – regarding MORAG – one of my eChambers has the appendices available, and gives her as: ‘Morag f (Gaelic) a diminutive of Mor, great.‘ Are you suggesting that setters need to pull more than just the ‘f’ into the clue, so maybe ‘not-so-great Gaelic female’?…
Not too much searching on google with this puzzle as I have read all of Christie and Sayers and most of the the other two. An enjoyable solve and it all fell into place when I suddenly saw “Queens of crime”. Thank you Skylark and mc_rapper67 for the blog. I love the animated colour in the grid.