Friday 23 November 2012

Ep 99 [SF2] again, plus a new game

Here's the coverage of episode 99 for anyone playing along.

There's another new game after the cut.


Round 1:

Round 2:

Round 3:

826

Round 4:

Round 5:

Round 6:

220

Round 7:

Round 8:

390

Round 9:


7 comments:

Jan said...

I had a good quarterfinal game, and had an unbeatable lead going into the conundrum! So, even though it took me three mins to find it, I still beat Naween - which I was very pleased about! I'll stop boasting now - hehe

RELATED (7)
FAIRIES (7)
(10+9)*25 - 2 = 473 (10)
CREATINE (8) - I remembered a word I have learnt from you
PHONE (0) after time HUMANE
(9-2)*100 + 25 - 9 = 716 (10)
POUNCES (7)
7*50 + 9 + 9 - 4 = 364 (7)
3 minutes

And your game
CRAZIER, TRACKER
RATIONS
5/5=1. (1+7+3)*75 = 825
and
(100+75-3-7)*5 = 825
PRIME
SLATED, LEASED, LASTED
6/2*75 - (8-3) = 220
HANDLED
(75+4)*5 - (6-1)= 390
- too tough for me

Mike Backhouse said...

Here are mine

TRADED
FIVERS
Lily's way
CARTED (rejected TRANCED unfortunately as was not confident)
MANE (missed HUMANE grrrr..)
(6+2)*100-9*9=719 (3 off- not too easy for me!)
POUNCES
Naween's way
x

And the extra game

TRICKER (can't believe I missed CRAZIER!)
STRIP
(5+3)*100+75/5+7=822 (4 off)
FRUMPIER (an unusual 8 for me)
SLATED
3*75-((6+4)/2)=220
HANDLED
5*75+6+7+1=389 (1 off)
x

Victor said...

Very consistent game from me today, seven in each letter round and nowhere near solving the conundrum.

Mike, there's only one R in round 4 so no FRUMPIER there (had me scared for a second, I thought my seven would be a sure winner!).

1. TRACKER
2. RATIONS
3. 825 = (7 + 3 - 5/5)*100 - 75 (extremely difficult one)
4. PREMIUM
5. SEDATED
6. 220 = (8*3 - 2)*(6 + 4)
7. HANDLED
8. 390 = 5*(75 + 4 - 1)
9. -

Can we have an easier conundrum tomorrow please? One that people besides Geoff can solve :P

Mike Backhouse said...

Thanks Victor. I knew it was too good to be true. I really mucked up that round as my second word was PRIMMER, also with 2 R's.

Geoff Bailey said...

Well done on the semifinal result, Jan! Excellent results throughout.

Nice results from everyone on the extra game; my condolences to Mike about FRUMPIER, as it is a wonderful word to spot.

Victor: I go with the first conundrum that I encounter during the generation that is actually a plausibly-findable word, whether or not I can solve it. Anything else would both take too long and lead to biased generation. (I am a bit pleased that so far this has avoided the -ING plague that afflicts Countdown -- it seems like half of their non-finals conundrums end in that these days.) In this instance I was not completely confident in my answer, but did not see how it could be anything else.


1. ERRATIC
2. RATIONS
3. 826 = 3*100 + 7*75 + 5/5
4. UMPIRE
5. DELATES
6. 220 = (8 + 3)*(6 + 4)*2
7. HANDLED
8. 390 = (75 + 4 - 1)*5
9. IRONSMITH


Longer results in the next comment.

Geoff Bailey said...

Round 1: C R A E T R I Z K

I had RACE, REACT, CRATER, CRAZIER, TRACKER, TRICKER, ERRATIC, and TACKIER. I selected ERRATIC as the safest of them, since the other sevens were comparatives with spelling shifts and agent nouns.

The other sevens are TRACKIE and CIRRATE ("having cirri", such a helpful definition; in this case, it means having tendrils).


Round 2: N P R I O A T S I

I had PRION, APRON, and RATIONS. After time I added PIANIST as another seven.

The other sevens are SOPRANI / PARISON ("a preliminary shape or blank, from which a glass article is to be formed"), ASPIRIN, IRONIST, PATRONS / TARPONS (TARPON being a type of fish) / PARTONS (PARTON: "a hypothetical point-like object within protons, neutrons, etc."), SINOPIA ("a red-brown earth pigment") and SPIRANT (an obsolete term for a fricative.


Round 3: Target 826 from 100 75 5 3 5 7

My first thought was to keep the two fives to make the final adjustment of 1, and get to 825 with the rest. That is 11*75, which was not directly usable, but that meant that forming it as a combination with 100 would require a multiple of 100 that was also a multiple of 75. Only 300, 600, 900, etc. fit the bill, and it happily turned out that the 3 and the 7 are exactly what are needed for this; the solution that followed is 826 = 3*100 + 7*75 + 5/5.

Still within time I noticed the factor of 7; the target is 7*118 and I noted a chance to usefully divide by 5, getting 826 = 7*(100 + 75/5 + 3).


Round 4: M M F E E I R P U

I had MEME, FIRM, UMPIRE / IMPURE, IMMURE, and EMPIRE. After time I noted down the letters for future posting and immediately saw PREMIUM. That led me to notice FREEMIUM, which is not yet in the Macquarie but I think must end up in there eventually.

The other sevens are PERFUME, FERMIUM (an element), and PREMMIE (colloquial for "an infant born prematurely"). The other sixes are FUMIER and PREMIE (variant form of PREMMIE, but unhelpfully only listed under that so it might be overlooked if checked in isolation, as happened to me at first) / EPIMER ("either of a pair of isomeric compounds which differ from each other in the chirality at one atom").


Round 5: T D D E A S L A E

Bleah, duplication. I had DATED, SADDLE, SALTED, and DELATES (DELATE: "to inform against; denounce or accuse"). After time I noted DELATED and SEDATED as other sevens.

The other sevens are DEADEST / DEADSET / STEADED (STEAD as a verb: "to be of service, advantage, or avail to") and STADDLE ("the lower part of a stack of corn, hay, etc.").


Round 6: Target 220 from 75 2 3 8 6 4

The first thing I noticed was that the target was 4*55, so I played with that a bit to get 220 = 4*(75 - 2*6 - 8). Then I pulled the factorisation further apart to use small numbers only with 220 = (8 + 3)*(6 + 4)*2, and then took a more straightforward approach with 220 = 3*75 - (6 + 4)/2.


Round 7: I E A L D D N A H

I had IDEAL and HANDLED.

The other sevens are INHALED and ALIDADE. But there is an eight, the compound word HEADLAND.


Round 8: Target 390 from 75 6 7 5 1 4

I noted that 5*75 was close, and then tweaked my way to 390 = (75 + 4 - 1)*5. Of course, this could just be considered to use the factorisation 5*78, but that is how I thought of it at the time. I also considered the factorisation 6*65 to get another solution of 390 = (75 - 5 - 4 - 1)*6.


Round 9: SHORT MINI

I saw the SMITH fragment relatively early, which led to IRONSMITH. I was not completely confident in that as the answer, but did not see how it could be anything else. IRONSMITH was correct.

Sam Gaffney said...

1. TRACKER
2. RATIONS
3. Wrote wrong total, only found one away.
4. PREMIUM/PERFUME
5. SALTED (rejected DELATES)
6. 220 = 75*3*(6 + 4)*2
7. HEADLAND
8. 390 = (75 + 4 - 1)*5
9. Gave up, best guess was ORNITHISM