Friday 16 November 2012

Ep 95 [QF2] again, plus a new game

Here's the coverage of episode 95 for anyone playing along.

There's another new game after the cut, although the distribution seems a bit wonky; sorry about that, but blame the random number generator.  Once again I've taken an old Countdown conundrum for the time being.

I've decided against doing a separate post for the best results of yesterday's new game; I have added a comment for those instead.


Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

261

Round 4:

Round 5:

Round 6:

248

Round 7:

Round 8:

340

Round 9:

11 comments:

Victor said...

Just for fun:

1. CUBIT
2. LEMON
3. 261 = 75/25*(100 + 4) - 50 - 1
4. GROUTER
5. SOCIAL
6. 248 = 2*100 + 8*(7 + 4 - 5)
7. CHEATED
8. 340 = 10*(75 - 25 + 9)
9. 5s - we've seen this one before

Jan said...

First of all, the quarter final. Wow, Naween was in great form to start with. By the first break, I hadn't scored a point, and thought I would be lucky to score by the end of the game.

FASTER (0)
BRIGADES (0)
(4+7)*(75+ 6/6) + 10= 821 (0) wish I had seen the 82x10 etc way. I have just realised that is wrong anyway! Oops
CANDIED, CANDLED (7) yay
DITHERS (7)
8/4*75 + 50/10 = 155 (10)
CHOSEN, NACHOS (6)
6*50 + (100-75) - 8 = 317 (10)
-

I though getting 40 against Naween was pretty good!

PS thanks for your compliments about your extra game.

Jan said...

Victor - great solution to the first maths round. Even after time I couldn't get better than 1 away.

CUBIT
POMMEL
(50-100/25)*4 + 75 + 1 = 260
GROUTER
HOOPLAS
(8+4+5+7+100)*2=248
CHEATED
(9-2)*50-10 = 340
BARRICADE - 10 secs

I was really happy getting the conundrum so quickly, for me, and happy that I found POMMEL and HOOPLAS. There were some tough letter mixes.

Geoff Bailey said...

Jan: Yes, Naween's quarterfinal was brilliantly played by him. I played through it again just now, and still was down by a point going into the conundrum (which I did not solve). That was after ignoring BIRDCAGES, admittedly, as I recognised the mix.

Nice to hear from you, Victor! And apologies about the conundrums that you've seen before; I'm working on making a conundrum-producer, but it's not ready yet. Great work solving the 261; it was the tricky numbers round today. (I'll note in passing that you wrote 25 instead of 50 in the final numbers round, though.)

Well played, Jan -- some tough letter mixes indeed (*stares suspiciously at the random number generator*). HOOPLAS was a rather good find!

It's a shame that ten-letter words don't count; I wanted to double the H in round 5 to get SHOPAHOLIC. My answers for comparison (optimal results will be in a later comment):

BRUIT
POMMEL
262 = 4*(75 + 100/25 - 1) - 50
GROUTER
SCHOOL
248 = (7*5 - 4)*8
DETACHED
340 = (50/2 + 9)*10
BARRICADE (1 to 2 seconds)

Victor said...

Whoops, I meant 50 there, the intermediate result 25 made its way there somehow instead. HOOPLAS is an excellent find, Jan.

BARRICADE was in episode 381 in Alan Nash's game, Geoff could you please check future conundrums haven't already been blogged here?

Mike Backhouse said...

Here mine beginning with Naween and Veronica's game:

FAIRS
BARGED (I was wanting to give up at this stage!)
out of time, but I got Geoff's alternative after time
CANDIED
SHIRTED
Naween's way
WHOSE
Naween's way (2 off)
x

And the extra game

CUBIT
LEMON
add all numbers for 255 (6 off)
GROUTER (learned from recent game!)
CHOPS
(7-5)*100+(4+2)*8=248
DATED
Jan's way
x

Jan said...

Mike - in the qf, I was ready to throw in the towel one round after you, when I couldn't even beat Naween in the numbers. GROUTER is now easy to spot!

Geoff Bailey said...

Here's the longer details for the new game.

Round 1: U I I T R C R B I

Bleah, what a selection. I could not believe it when that third I turned up. I had CURT and BRUIT ("to noise abroad; rumour"). I also considered BUTIRIC, but knew that I was thinking of BUTYRIC ("relating to or derived from butyric acid").

The more obvious fives were CUBIT and CIRRI (plural of CIRRUS, a type of cloud). But there are two sixes: RUBRIC ("the title or a heading of a statute, etc. (originally written in red)") and IRITIC (adjective derived from IRITIS: "inflammation of the iris of the eye").


Round 2: M P E L A K O M N

I had PALM, LEMON / MELON, PLANK, and POMMEL. There are a lot of fives here, but POMMEL turns out to be the only six.


Round 3: Target 261 from 50 75 100 25 4 1

I saw the general tenor of how I wanted this to go, getting the offset of 11 by 3*4 - 1 with tweaking thrown in, but I jumped to the wrong start and it was not achievable from that. Consequently I had to settle for one away, with 262 = 4*(75 + 100/25 - 1) - 50.

The key to solving this one was to use 3, not 4, as the tweaking number. The solutions that follow are 261 = (75/25)*(100 + 4) - 50 - 1 and 261 = (75/25)*(50 + 4) + 100 - 1.


Round 4: R G E O R L U T O R

If only that last O had been an A then REGULATOR would have been there. Instead, I had OGRE, ROGER, and GROUTER.

GROUTER is the only seven; the sixes are ROUTER / TOURER, LOOTER / TOOLER / RETOOL / ROOTLE, ROOTER / TORERO ("a bullfighter who fights on foot"), and TURGOR ("the state of being swelled or filled out").


Round 5: O I A S P L H C O

It's a shame that SHOPAHOLIC is ten letters. I had SOAP, PAILS, POLISH, and SCHOOL.

The sevens are HOOPLAS (ably found by Jan -- well done!), COOLISH, CALIPHS (the variant spelling KHALIFS was available in the previous game, so I regret missing this), and SCHOLIA (plural of SCHOLIUM: "an explanatory note or comment").


Round 6: Target 248 from 100 8 5 2 4 7

A single large number provides some relief after the previous numbers round; I started with 248 = 2*(100 + 8*(7 - 4)) and then found the shorter 248 = (7*5 - 4)*8.


Round 7: E A E C D D T H E

I had DACE, DECADE, and DETACHED.

That's the only eight; the only seven is CHEATED. The sixes are DETACH, ETCHED, HEADED, HEEDED, HEATED, and THECAE (plural of THECA: "a case or receptacle").


Round 8: Target 340 from 75 50 9 3 10 2

I was mostly focused on the factor of 10, starting off with 340 = (75 - 50 + 9)*10 and 340 = (50/2 + 9)*10. Another approach yielded 340 = (9 - 2)*50 - 10, and then I experimented a bit to get the descent from 375 to work, with 340 = 3*(75 + 50 - 9) - (10 - 2).


Round 9: DICARB EAR

A fairly quick find of BARRICADE (one to two seconds).

Sam Gaffney said...

Not 100% sure on time for Rounds 6&7 (this issue will recur, along with ambitious word selection), but here we are:

CUBIT
MOLEMAN (over POMMEL)
261 = (100+4)*75/25 - 50 - 1 (Why Geoff, you shouldn't have!)
GROUTER
POLISH
248 = (100+(5+7)*2) * 8/4
CHEATED
340 = (75-50+9)*10
~1s BARRICADE

Geoff Bailey said...

*grins* You're welcome, Sam. I can't find MOLEMAN in my Macquarie, though...

Sam Gaffney said...

I had noticed that (Hans) MOLEMAN was invalid, but didn't think to mention it.