NG 29

Apologies for the delay on this one; new game 29 is now up.


Round 1: P F D O E O R B O

I had DOPE, FOOD, ROPED, and PROOFED (PROOF as a verb: "to treat or coat (a material) in order to make it resistant to deterioration or damage, impervious to water, etc.").  I also wondered whether FORBODE would be a valid variant spelling of FOREBODE, but it is not.

PROOFED seems to be the only seven.  The sixes are PROBED, ROOFED, and FOREDO (variant spelling of FORDO: "to do away with; kill; destroy").


Round 2: H A S L U A S Z C

I had LASH, HAULS, SLASH, CLASS, CLASH, and then spotted CASUAL.  As I was writing it down it occurred to me that I could pluralise it to CASUALS.  I was thinking in terms of casual employees; that sense is listed, as is the sense of informal clothing.

That looks like the only seven; the other sixes are CAUSAL andCALASH ("a light, low-wheeled carriage, either with or without a folding top").


Round 3: Target 497 from 100 9 2 9 5 1

The target is very near 500, and the offset is easy to make, giving the solution 497 = 5*100 - 2 - 1.


Round 4: T I S O M A T H S

I had MOIST, ATOMS, then wondered about ATOMIST and ATOMISTS, with TOASTS as a fallback six.  I decided to chance ATOMIST (someone who subscribes to ATOMISM) and that was the right decision; I was perhaps aided by the fact that it had shown up twice before in my searches, for episode 55 and episode 412.

The sevens are SOTTISH and STATISM.


Round 5: N E E E P T R N T

Gah, all those E's.  I had PENT, REPENT, wondered about PRETEEN (I did not like it since I expected it would be capitalised, but the Macquarie does not list it at all), RENNET, and then cast my mind back to TERPENOID from episode 418 and thus found TERPENE for seven.

The other sevens are PENTENE (one of a class of hydrocarbons) and ENTENTE ("understanding").


Round 6: Target 801 from 100 75 3 7 1 3

Another straightforward numbers round: 801 = (7 + 1)*100 + 3/3.


Round 7: E E O D K R N T M

Five E's in a row before another vowel, and I am becoming somewhat more convinced that I need to move away from pure randomness.  I had a dubious KOED (it needs the apostrophe: KO'ED), REEK, TONKED, TENDER, wondered about MORDENT but rejected it (I was thinking of MORDANT: "caustic or sarcastic, as wit, a speaker, etc."; it turns out that MORDENT is also valid, being a type of melodic embellishment), and then spotted MENTORED for eight.

The other eight is ENTODERM (variant spelling of ENDODERM: "the inner germ layer in the embryo of a metazoan", which I'm sure helps a lot).  The other seven is ERODENT (mentioned in yesterday's commentary: "eroding; erosive"); the plausible sounding TOKENED is not allowed by the Macquarie.


Round 8: Target 597 from 7 9 3 8 4 2

Six small numbers often cause difficulties.  I got sidetracked trying to make this as 8*75 - 3, and ended up not being able to use that.  I had to get something down before time ran out and ended up three away with 600 = (9*4*2 + 3)*8.

After time I got successively closer with 595 = (8*(9 + 2) - 3)*7, then 596 = (7*(9 + 2) - 3)*8 + 4, and finally to the target with 597 = (8 - 2)*(7 + 4)*9 + 3.  Those various elevens helped a lot!


Round 9: HARD FACES

I actually was presented with the slightly different form of CHARFADES, but I don't think that was an advantage.  I found the HEAD fragment at some point and then had HEADSCARF after 11.3 seconds.