There's another new game after the cut.
Round 1:
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Round 2:
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Round 3:
| 886 | |||||
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Round 4:
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Round 5:
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Round 6:
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Round 7:
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Round 8:
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Round 9:
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6 comments:
Phew, I have just played your game Geoff, and your number games were really tough. Even after time I could not get one exact number.
Just as well, for my ego's sake, I had a win against Liam and Dom in the quarter final!
QF first
HAIRNET (7)
WELTER (6)
3*75 - (10+8-1) = 208 (10)
INCLOSED (8)
BACONS (6)
8*25 + 9 + 3 = 212. (0). I need to work on using a 10 better
CARROTS (0)
8/4*100 + (9-3) = 206 (10)
-
And your game
SMASHED
SANDALS
(100-1)*(10-1) - 3 = 888
CANNIER
PROOFED
after time (100+2)*(3+1) + 25 = 433
CURFEWS
- too hard!
THEOCRACY - 15 secs
Yes, those were rather tough numbers games tonight; certainly much harder than the quarterfinal's ones. I was a bit surprised at the difficulty, to be honest. It will be a while before I go with another six small, mind you.
On the quarterfinal, well done with HAIRNET and INCLOSED in particular. Pretty good results, and a deserved win.
On the other game, nice work with the letters; it turns out that sevens are the best in each case. Two of the numbers rounds turned out to be impossible, too.
My results, which turned out to be an optimal game (a bit to my surprise):
SMASHED
SANDALS
887 = (10 - 1)*(100 + 1) - 25 + 3 [1 off]]
NUCLEAR
REPROOF
438 = 3*(2*75 - 100/25) [I almost missed this, and stumbled fortuitously upon it]
CRUISED
805 = (3*7 + 2)*(4 + 1)*7 [2 off]
THEOCRACY (2s)
The first and last numbers games turn out to be the unique best answers; there's essentially only one other way to solve the middle one. I'll put longer explanations up tomorrow.
Wow, tough game today. Looking at your optimal answers Geoff it turns out I was going reasonably well, until I blew up in the last 2 rounds.
1. SMASHED
2. SALONS
3. 887 = (10 - 1)*(100 + 1) - 25 + 3
4. NUCLEAR
5. PROOFED
6. 438 = 3*(2*75 - 100/25)
7. CRUISED
8. - (best I could do in time was 816 = (7*7 + 2)*(3+1)*4)
9. - nice conundrum!
Round 1: A E H I M H D S S
I had MADE, MAIDS, and was writing down MASHED when the final S arrived and I turned it into SMASHED.
That's the best possible; the other seven is MASHIES (MASHIE being a type of golf club). MESSIAH is tempting, but only listed with a capital letter.
Round 2: L U N S A S A D O
I had ULNA, was not sure about ULNAS (later checking revealed that both ULNAS and ULNAE are acceptable plural forms), SOUNDS, ANODAL, and SANDALS.
Again seven is the best; the others are UNLOADS and LANDAUS (LANDAU being a type of carriage).
Round 3: Target 886 from 25 100 1 3 1 10
I had a bit of confusion to start with here, and a four off 890 = 10*(100 - 1) - (3 + 1)*25. Then I realised that I should be using 9*100 to get close, and it became a question of reaching an offset of 14. That proved to be too difficult, but 12 was straightforward with a tweak (9 + 3), and the 25 could turn that 12 into 13. The resulting answer was the one-away 887 = (10 - 1)*(100 + 1) + 3 - 25.
That turns out to be the best possible, and indeed the only way to get that close. I will note that after time I found the nice (but not as good) 888 = ((25 - 1)/3)*(100 + 10 + 1).
Round 4: L U R N E C A N I
I had RULE, CRUEL, NUCLEAR / UNCLEAR, and flirted with RUINANCE but rightly rejected it.
Seven is the best to be done, although this round has many such -- really, the only round tonight with many best options. Those others are UNCLEAN, CANNIER, UNLEARN, AURICLE ("a part like or likened to an ear"), CARLINE ("an old woman"), CAULINE ("of or relating to a stem [...]"), ANEURIN (another name for vitamin B1), NUCLEIN ("any of several proteins found in all living cell nuclei"), and UNCINAL (variant form of UNCINATE: "hooked; bent at the end like a hook").
Round 5: O E R P I O R D F
I had ROPE, PERIOD, rejected FIREDOOR, REPROOF, and almost fell into the trap of DROOPIER. I had doubts as soon as I wrote it down, though; it's the kind of adjective which the Macquarie seems to regard as simply descriptive, that something would either be droopy or not. I vacillated a bit over that, but stayed with REPROOF for seven and that turned out to be the right move.
The other seven is PROOFED.
Round 6: Target 438 from 75 25 100 1 3 2
I noted after a bit that the target was 6*75 - 12, and thus 6*(75 - 2). I could not get a solution from that (it's not possible to make another 2 after doing 6 = 2*3), and spun around in useless circles for a bit. I started to resign myself to just getting close by starting from 2*3*75, but I actually wrote it down as 3*2*75 and then saw that I did not need a 2 after all but a 4, and I could actually make that. The solution that followed was 438 = 3*(2*75 - 100/25). I got lucky here; if I'd written it as 2*3*75 instead I may not have seen the answer.
The other solution does go back to the original idea, but making the 6 differently: 438 = (100/25 + 2)*(75 - 2), where one of those 2's is made as 3 - 1. Those are all the solutions possible.
Round 7: U E S C I R D F W
I had CUES, CRUISE, CRUISED, and CURFEWS. Those are the only two sevens, as it turns out.
Round 8: Target 803 from 7 2 1 7 3 4
The small numbers ended up being a bit on the small side, making this one more difficult than it might otherwise have been. I reasoned that I was probably going to need to multiply by at least one 7 in order to get close; the nearest multiple is 7*115 = 805. 115 is 5*23, and I saw that I could make both of those and thus get to two away with 805 = (3*7 + 2)*(4 + 1)*7. That seemed like a good result, so I wrote it down.
I spent the rest of the time trying to get to 3*4*67 = 804, but without success. It turns out that 805 is the closest one can get, and that the above is the only way to do so. Very tough numbers tonight!
Round 9: RECCY OATH
The -CY ending, and the TH sound took me straight to the answer of THEOCRACY. A bit lucky, no doubt.
I had to omit this from the previous due to comment size restrctions: Nice work on the numbers, Victor, and on a good game in general. By my reckoning you and Jan would have gone to a tiebreaker conundrum.
Definited a very tough game tonight, but with satisfaction to be had from doing well. I hope the next one will be a little easier, though!
MASHIES
UNLOADS
one off: 887 = (10-1)*(100+1)-25+3
NUCLEAR
PROOFED
438 = (75-2)*(100/25 + 3-1)
CRUISED
Couldn't do better than 792, tried to make things out of 7*7.
~25s THEOCRACY (heavily distracted)
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