Wednesday 12 December 2012

NG 20

Game twenty is available here, and the longer writeup for game 19 is now up.


Round 1: R S O O R B E I T

I had ROOS, SOBER, BOOSTER, ROOSTER, and ORBITERS.  A pleasing find, just when an eight looked beyond reach.

My Scrabble list suggests that ROBOTRIES is worth checking, but the Macquarie does not know of it.  ORBITERS is the best to be done, and the only eight.  The other sevens are REBOOTS, ORBITER, ROOTERS / TOREROS (TORERO: "a bullfighter who fights on foot"), ROISTER / RIOTERS, SOOTIER, ROOTIER, and BOOTIES.


Round 2: R F I E P C E R A

I had FIRE, PRICE, RECIPE, and an uncertain CAPERER.  I decided to risk it, and that was the right decision.  After time I noted the somewhat safer seven of PREFACE and checked to confirm my suspicion that PREFACER would not be valid.

The other sevens are FIERCER and PIERCER / REPRICE.


Round 3: Target 462 from 50 8 6 6 10 3

I noticed immediately that the target was 11*42, which is 11*7*6.  With the 6 handy that was tempting, and I soon had the solution 462 = (8*10 - 3)*6.  Then I looked at a more piecemeal approach and found 462 = 8*50 + 6*10 + 6/3.


Round 4: A N C A S O H G E

I had SCAN, HANGS, and CHANGES.  I wish that C had been an X for HEXAGONS...

There is an eight here, though -- a very MasterChef word: GANACHES (GANACHE: "a rich chocolate confection made from semisweet chocolate and cream, often used as a cake icing").  The other sevens are GANACHE and CHOANAE ("the posterior nasal apertures, visible in the inferior view of the skull").


Round 5: S N T M E D O O M

Ah, this round hurts -- appropriate that it ended in DOOM.  I had SENT, MENDS, STONED, MODEST, ENDMOST (I was slightly uncertain, but it is all right), and a rather late spot of MOMENTOS.  I had just enough time to realise that I was thinking of MEMENTOS and cross out the second O to leave the safe seven of MOMENTS.  After time I noted down MOONSET as another seven.

And then I looked up MOMENTO, discovering that it was listed as a variant spelling of MEMENTO after all.  It is speculated to have arisen as a misunderstanding, but it is listed, and MOMENTOS is the only eight.  The other seven is, of course, MOMENTO.


Round 6: Target 708 from 50 25 75 6 10 7

An offset of eight looked a little elusive, and I wrote down a fallback 707 = (10 + 6)*50 - 75 - 25 + 7.  Then I realised that the offset of 42 was very formable and worked rather satisfactorily to give 708 = 10*75 - 6*7.  I finished off with a tweaked version of 708 = 6*(75 + 50 - 7).


Round 7: F A E A W H C L K

I had CHEW, CHAFE, and HACKLE.

A parsimonious mix, with that K proving more useful than it often does.  The other six is FAECAL.


Round 8: Target 182 from 75 100 5 7 2 8

I started with a boring 182 = 100 + 75 + 7, then decided to use the factorisation to get 182 = (8 + 5)*7*2.


Round 9: NICER GEAR

I got lost on this one; I pulled out the -ING but did not see anything usable from the rest of the letters, and then got lost in things like -ANCE and -ANIC.  I think the best I ended up with was GENERIC, and it was not until a minute and a half had elapsed (89.3 seconds, to be pedantic) that I saw CAREERING.  Bother.


A little more to the letters today than at first apparent (which is nice), with ORBITERS, GANACHES, and MOMENTOS interesting finds.  Not much to say about the numbers, alas, and I regret missing that conundrum.

10 comments:

Mike Backhouse said...

Here are mine:

TRIBES, RESORT
RIPER, FREER
6*8*10-6*3=462
NACHOS
MOMENTS
(75+25)*7+6=706 (2 off)
FLACK
100+75+7=182
CAREERING (60s)

Jan said...

Mike - great work in getting the conundrum!

I was all around it, but couldn't get it. It was nearly an old tv show - GREENACRE

REBOOTS, BOOSTER
PREFACE, FIERCER
(3+6)*50 + (10+8-6) = 462
CHANGES
MOMENTS (if the d was a u, it would be momentous)
50/10=1. (75+25+1)*7 = 707 (1 off)
HACKLE (but I liked whelk better)
100+75+7 = 182
-

Geoff, I love the new format. Thank you. And don't beat yourself up about putting the new games up at a certain time etc. I don't mind the randomness of the games!

Sam Gaffney said...

Have finally caught up again. Still haven't gotten around to posting my answers to the actual Series 1 episodes.

I got all the same words as Jan here, the mixes didn't allow much creativity.

REBOOTS
PREFACE
462 = (50+10)*8 - 6*3. To take Mike's neat method further: (8*10-3)*6.
CHANGES
MOMENTS
708 = (75+25-6)*7 + 50
HACKLE
100+75+7 = 182
~1s: very quick, but space bar just hid the conundrum instead of stopping the timer (one must tab first)

Victor said...

I'm proud to finally get the conundrum today, after what feels like a while.

1. ROOSTER
2. FIERCER
3. 462 = (50 - 3)*10 - 8
4. CHANGES
5. MOMENTS
6. 708 = 10*75 - 6*7
7. CHALK
8. 182 = 100 + 75 + 7
9. CAREERING (6s)

Mike Backhouse said...

Everyone had a different way of doing that first numbers game, including Sam who had two! I was going to say the process of EQUIFINALITY at work but it's not even in my second edition, and I'm not sure if there's a better word.

JT said...

ROOTERS
RECIPE
462-50*8+10*6+6/3
CHANGES
MOMENTS
708-75*10-6*8
WHACK
182-100+75+7
Sturggled again

JT said...

sorry 6*7 for round 6

Geoff Bailey said...

Ooh, FLACK -- nice word, Mike! And you comfortably beat me to the conundrum solution, too.

*grins at Jan* I hear that it's the place to be. Nice results in round two -- those sevens were a little hard to see, at least for me. You've left out a step in your second numbers round, which I assume was 6 - 50/10 = 1; a nice route to 707 which I'd have taken for the fallback if I'd seen it, but I missed the divide-by-five option again. And I agree, WHELK is a much nicer word than HACKLE.

I'm glad you've caught up, Sam, but I'll note that there was a bit more room for creativity in the letters than may have been apparent at first. Great conundrum speed from you, and yes, the initial three seconds are there for people to adjust to the timer button. I was expecting the mouse to be used, but tab/space works well also.

And congratulations on getting the conundrum, Victor; I know they have been a capricious lot lately. *wry smile*

Jan said...

Thanks Geoff. You are right about the step I didn't write down properly here. Sorry. I did have it written down right in my book. My transposing needs some work!

Sam Gaffney said...

I saw MOMENTOS, but assumed that it was only a foreign word, as when people say "uno momento".