Round 1:
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Round 2:
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Round 3:
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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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Spoiler space
9 comments:
Here are mine. One 7 and one numbers solution were the best I could do.
POCKET
CRAMS
7*75+50-(6+2+1)=566 (1 off)
CREATE
CLEANS
7*50-25+10=335 (1 off)
MOISTER
8*50+75/5+4=419
x
Yes Mike, it was a tough game.
I have just got the conundrum after 5 minutes!
POCKET
MARACAS
7*75 + 50 - (6-1)*2 = 565
LACERATE
LANCES
25*(7+5) + 10 = 335
after time (50-2)*7 = 336
WAITERS, MOISTER
50*8 + 5 + 4 + 9 = 418
after time (50-4)*9 + 5 = 419
LITTERBUG (5 mins)
Jan - I can't believe I missed that last part of your first numbers solution as I was trying to work out how to get the 10 from 6, 2 and 1. Must be too early in the morning.
Well done on MARACAS and LACERATE. Being able to 'see' words you know from jumbled letters is still a (slowly) developing skill for me!
Thanks Mike. And when the better players comment, we will learn what other words we missed out on!
I'll be paying extra attention to my numbers games from now after that minor slip-up yesterday.
Jan, I think everyone else will be learning words from you rather than the other way around - again well done on MARACAS and LACERATE. I can only add AMORTISE (and the speculative WARTIMES) in round 7.
I'd like to know if CELLARET is valid, I chickened out of it in round 4 and the online Macquarie is not perfectly clear here.
1. POCKET
2. AROMAS
3. 565 = 7*(75 + 6) - 2
4. TREACLE
5. INFUSE
6. 336 = 7*(50 - 2)
7. AMORTISE
8. 419 = 9*(50 - 4) + 5
9. LITTERBUG (6s)
I have to agree with Victor, Jan -- your wordfinding is generally impressive.
Mike: MOISTER is very nice, as is your solution for 419. Dividing a large number by 5 still does not come easy to me.
Jan: Excellent work with MARACAS and LACERATE; and good work finding solutions to those numbers rounds after time. Also the conundrum, which I struggled with.
Victor: I'll be looking up CELLARET tonight; it is on my list to check but I did not have much spare time then. I did check up on WARTIMES, though, and my reading is that it should be acceptable. Great work with the conundrum!
My answers:
1. POCKET
2. MASCARA
3. 565 = 7*(75 - 1)+ 50 - 6/2
4. LACERATE
5. FIANCES
6. 336 = 7*(50 - 2)
7. AMORTISE
8. 420 = 5*(75 + 9) [Found solutions after time, but it took embarrassingly long]
9. -
I tossed up between BIG TURTLE and GRUB TITLE as the conundrum words here.
Victor - wow, that conundrum in 6 seconds. That is amazing.
Geoff, I don't think I would have found the conundrum any quicker with grub title! The conundrum is definitely my Achilles heel
Round 1: T K P E O E C G O
I had KEPT, POKE, and POCKET. A tough mix to start!
POCKET is the only six; the fives are GECKO, COOEE, COOPT, PEKOE, and TOPEE ("a helmet of sola pith").
Round 2: S F R A A A O M C
Attack of the A's! (There were a lot of them this game.) I had AFAR, ROAMS, CAROMS, FRACAS, and MASCARA.
The other sevens are MARACAS / MARASCA (a type of cherry) and SARCOMA ("any of various malignant tumours originating in the connective tissue, attacking especially the bones").
Round 3: Target 565 from 50 75 1 2 6 7
Descent from 575 seemed clear, and the first option I spotted used a tweak: 565 = 7*(75 - 1) + 50 - 6/2. Then I saw the untweaked version of 565 = 7*75 + 50 - 2*(6 - 1), and finally managed to get 490 + 75 to work with 565 = (7 + 6/2)*(50 - 1) + 75.
Round 4: L R C A A E L E T
I had CARL (an archaic term for a farmer), CLEAR, CALLER, TREACLE, and LACERATE.
LACERATE is the only eight; the Macquarie does not list CELLARET, alas. The other sevens are LATERAL and LACTEAL (milky).
Round 5: L F S I U E C N A
I had FUELS, SINFUL, INFUSE, and FIANCES.
There are two eights here, though: LUNACIES and FUNICLES (FUNICLE: "(in plants) the stalk of an ovule or seed").
Round 6: Target 336 from 25 50 7 2 5 10
One of my favourite numbers, due to it being 6*7*8. The 7 is there, so one just needs 6*8 = 48, and that is easy: 336 = 7*(50 - 2). I also made the minor adjustment to avoid large numbers entirely: 336 = 7*(5*10 - 2).
Round 7: M S T W A I O R E
I had MAST, WAITS, and ATOMISER / AMORTISE.
The other eights are MISWROTE / WORMIEST and possibly WARTIMES; Countdown does not allow the latter, but the Macquarie's definition for WARTIME of "a time or season of war" makes it seem possibly like a count noun rather than a mass noun.
Round 8: Target 419 from 50 75 5 9 4 8
I had a mental block here; I saw many times that the target was 9*50 - 31, and that 9*4 = 36 was close to the 31, but somehow overlooked the consequent tweak of 419 = 9*(50 - 4) + 5. Instead I ended up settling for one away with 420 = 5*(75 + 9).
After time I found the solution of 419 = 8*50 + 75/5 + 4, which was also ably found by Mike.
Round 9: BIG TURTLE
I gave up on this one, perhaps a little early; that's the drawback of generating conundrums -- I lack the surety that they are effectively solvable.
A couple very nice words from Jan.
1. POCKET
2. FRACAS, thought MARACAS might have a double-C
3. 565 = 7*(75+6) - 2
4. TREACLE
5. FINALES - this mix felt like it had a nine, but didn't.
6. 336 = 7*(50 - 2)
7. AMORTISE
8. 419 = 9*(50-4)+5
9. two or three minutes
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