Thursday 20 December 2012

NG 25

New game 25 is now available, and the writeup for new game 24 is now in place.


Round 1: T N N A E E L D L

Ergh, a lot of duplication to start with.  Another vowel instead of the L would have been tempting, with an I giving ANNELID or an A giving ANNEALED... but it was just as well it was not, since the next vowel was an E and I might have erroneously tried LATEENED.

As it was, I had NEAT, NEATEN, DELATE, and DENTAL.  I wondered about EDENTAL, but did not like it and was correct to avoid it.  The related word that is listed is EDENTATE ("lacking teeth").

Six is the best to be done; there's a few of them, of which some of the more common ones are TANNED, LEANED / LEADEN, and ELATED.


Round 2: K S P E H O E S U

I had POKES, wondered about PEKOES (I'm still unsure, to be honest), HOUSES, and PUSHES.

There's some other sixes -- SPOKES was one I saw but did not write down -- but there is a seven: ESPOUSE.


Round 3: Target 839 from 75 50 7 2 7 10

I started off a bit too keen on using 875, but that did lead me to a one-away 840 = 7*(75 + 50 - (7 - 2)).  I then got hooked on trying to make the target as 825 + 2*7; it feels like an approach with a lot of potential, particularly with the 2 or 7 available for tweaking, but I ran out the rest of the time without finding a way to make it work.

Looking at other approaches after time, I finally considered 850 - 11 and managed to get that to work: 839 = (10 + 7)*50 - (75 + 2)/7.  Later checking shows that this is the only solution.


Round 4: S G D I I C N O O

The -ING fragment was there, but hard to use.  I had DIGS, DISC, and DINGOS.  I toyed with CODINGS and COOINGS, but correctly rejected them.  After time I noted two other sixes in CODONS / CONDOS.

Some sources allow DISCO as a verb, and hence DISCOING, but the Macquarie does not.  There is a different eight, though: ISOGONIC ("having or relating to equal angles").

There are some sevens, too: INDIGOS, DISCING (DISC as a verb: "to prepare (soil) with a disc harrow"), and CONOIDS (CONOID: "a geometrical solid formed by the revolution of a conic section about one of its axes").


Round 5: C T M A I U W R N

My brain was telling me that there was something here that I should see, but I could not pin it down.  For a long time all I had was WARM.  I wrote down NATRIUM a bit late in the piece -- it's the Latin name for sodium (and the reason why the chemical symbol is Na) -- and that was all I had.  I was a bit uncertain about NATRIUM, which I know is listed in some sources (it's in my copy of Chambers) but I had a half-memory of encountering it before and the Macquarie not having it.  That was correct, as it turns out, with episode 32 being the likely candidate; NATRIUM is not valid.

After time I noted TUNIC and TUNICA (another word for TUNIC in the anatomical/zoological/botanical sense).

There were sevens here, though: CURTAIN, CRANIUM, and MANTRIC.  It's not the first time that I've struggled to see CURTAIN -- bother.


Round 6: Target 814 from 25 75 7 6 2 4

I looked at getting to 800 first, and a tweak finished things off: 814 = (4*(75 + 25) + 7)*2.  Then I took a kitchen sink approach of 814 = (6 + 4)*75 + 2*(25 + 7).


Round 7: A X B S D I I L A

I had DABS, AXIS, SALAD, AXIAL, BASAL, correctly rejected DIBASAL, and was uncertain about LABIAS and BASILIA before settling on ALIBIS as a safe six.  Just as well, as LABIA is already plural and there's no such thing as BASILIA.  After time I saw BIAXIAL as a seven; Jan did rather well to find this within time, I'd say.

The other seven is BASIDIA (plural of BASIDIUM).  And the adjective derived from it is the eight: BASIDIAL.


Round 8: Target 568 from 100 25 2 2 7 10

I realised that the target was 8*71, and got hung up on that for a while -- there's ways to get 8, and ways to get 71, but both at once is beyond me.  Fortunately I found the alternative of 4*142 with 568 = (100 + 25 + 10 + 7)*2*2, and then switched tacks to descend from 600 with 568 = (10 - 2 - 2)*100 - 25 - 7.


Round 9: HARSH REST

I decided that -ERS was worth investigating at some point, and eventually found THRASHERS from that after 8.4s.  Unfortunately, I forgot that I was supposed to be rejecting conundrums that end in S (well, those that are simple plurals or participles formed by adding an S, anyway).  Apologies to all.

6 comments:

Mike Backhouse said...

Here are mine:

TANNED (was distracted by the possibility of TUNNELLED if the A had been a U)
HOUSES
(10+2)*75-50-(7+7)=836 (3 off)
CODINGS (I realise CODING can probably be plural, but took a chance for the extra letter)
TRAIN
(7+4)*75-6*2=813 (1 off)
BASIL, BAILS
10-(2+2)*100-25-7=568 (I started with the concept of looking for 6*100-25 and started writing it out without knowing exactly what the end result would be and it worked)
x

Victor said...

More woe in the letters rounds for me today. I saw a solution for the first numbers game just as time ran out. Would have been cool if I got it.

1. TANNED
2. SPOKES
3. 1-away: 838 = 7*(75 + 50 - 7) + 10 + 2
(after time: 839 = (10 + 7)*50 - (75 + 2)/7 = pretty sick!)
4. DICING
5. ATRIUM
6. 814 = (4*(75 + 25) + 7)*2
7. BAILS
8. 568 = (10 - 2 - 2)*100 - 25 - 7
9. -

Jan said...

Well, after yesterday's conundrum, I decided to risk a word that I haven't really heard in action, but I can't see anything else.

Victor, I knew that the 2nd numbers round, had to have a 7x2 in it, but couldn't work out how to do it. After seeing your solution, I now know how I could have done it. I got lost with lots of brackets!

Mike, I have risked CODINGS too

NEATEN
SPOUSE, HOUSES
(75+7+2)*10 = 840. 1 off
CODINGS
CURTAIN
(4+7)*75 - 2*6 = 813. 1 off
BIAXIAL - really happy finding that one
((25*2)+7)*10 - 2 = 568
SHEATHERS - 84.2 secs

Sam Gaffney said...

Joyless, other than Round 6, and perhaps a tough conundrum. Nice solving on Round 8 from everyone (else).

ELATED
SPOKES
one off: (75+7+2)*10=840, also Victor's cool solve shortly after time
DISCOING (possible, the sixes were too boring to ignore this)
MANIC (depressing)
814 = (((75+25)*4+7)*2
SALAD
one off: 567 = (25-2)*10*2 + 100 + 7, Mike/Victor's way soon after
26.9 THRASHERS, hard work with all the doubled letters and rare pluralised word.

Jan said...

Sam - well done on finding THRASHERS.

Oops with my SHEATHERS - had 2 e's, instead of 2 r's

Geoff Bailey said...

Argh! *headdesks*

Would you believe that I rejected one word earlier for ending in S, and forgot to do so this time? Sorry to all again, I do need some quality control in the conundrum department.

(The rejected one was APPRAISES, where I got very distracted by the letters as presented to me: ASSIPAPER.)

Longer writeup in a bit, here's the short version:

1. NEATEN
2. HOUSES
3. 840 = 7*(75 + 50 - (7 - 2)) [after time: 839 = (7 + 10)*50 - (75 + 2)/7]
4. DINGOS
5. invalid [NATRIUM -- the Latin word for sodium; it's in Chambers, but not the Macquarie]
6. 814 = 2*(4*(75 + 25) + 7)
7. ALIBIS
8. 568 = (100 + 25 + 10 + 7)*2*2
9. THRASHERS (8.4s)


Rather tough letters today (and a tough first numbers round) -- sixes are decent results. I regret to report that neither CODINGS nor DISCOING get the nod from the Macquarie. SHEATHERS would be valid if it had the right letters, though.

Jan gets the kudos today for the two excellent finds of CURTAIN (a commonplace word, but often difficult to spot in practice) and BIAXIAL. A wonderful find within time!