NG 66

New game 66 is now available.


Round 1: S R D D E A E L C

A promising mix to start with; I had REDS, DREADS, LEADERS, an uncertain RESCALED (it turns out not to be listed), LADDERS, wondered about CLADDERS (someone who applies cladding, by inference, but it also is not listed), RADDLES (RADDLE as a verb: "to mark (a sheep) for identification, with or as with raddle" where RADDLE in that sense is a type of ochre), and finally the safe eights of DECLARES and DECLARED.

Those turn out to be the only eights -- the Macquarie does not list RESADDLE, either -- and there are quite a few sevens.

My selection: DECLARED


Round 2: H Y S H I E G A E

I had HIES (HIE: "to hasten; speed; go in haste"), SIGH, HIGHS, and GEISHA.  I also spotted HIGH EYES, but it's no surprise that is not listed (and it's two words in any case).

GEISHA seems to be the only six; the other fives are SIEGE, AEGIS ("the shield of Zeus", which then got extended to a more general meaning of "protection; sponsorship"), GHEES (GHEE: "clarified butter, used especially in Indian cookery"), and HEIGH (variant form of HEY).

The term YEAH is only listed as an adverb and as an interjection, so it is not automatically pluralisable and YEAHS is not valid.

My selection: GEISHA


Round 3: Target 158 from 75 50 9 8 4 5

The first instinct is to make this as 150 + 8, and with both 75 and 50 dividing 150 that seems like it should be easy.  But the remaining small numbers do not lend themselves very well to the task, as it turns out, and other approaches are more fruitful.  In my case I looked at 108 + 50, since 108 has many useful factors, and ended up with the solution 158 = (8 - 5)*9*4 + 50.

Then I considered more additive means, and found the solution 158 = 75 + 50 + 4*9 - (8 - 5), and finally managed to get 150 + 8 to work after all with 158 = 9*50 - 4*75 + 8.  A roundabout way of getting there!

My selection: 158 = (8 - 5)*9*4 + 50


Round 4: D C S I O C O R E

I had DISC, DISCO, and SCORED.  It was not until after time that I saw SIROCCO (and rightly rejected SIROCCOED); that's a bit vexing, as I found SIROCCOS recently in NG 54.

The other sevens are CODICES (plural of CODEX: "a manuscript volume of an ancient classic, the Scriptures, etc."), CICEROS (CICERO: "Printing a European unit of measurement for type, slightly larger than the pica"), CORDIES (CORDIE being a variant form of CORDY: "an officer trained at the Australian Defence Force Academy"), and OROIDES (OROIDE: "an alloy containing copper, tin, etc., used to imitate gold").

Thanks to commenter Jan for spotting CORDIES as it was not in my word list.

My selection: SCORED


Round 5: M S N T O A E B R

I had MOST, STAMEN, BEMOANS, and when the final R went up I knew there was an eight if only I could remember it.  That's because I recognised MONSTERA (I wrote down MONSTER at this point) in the mix, and recalled from past experience that it is not valid (although it would be in Countdown) -- the only entry in the Macquarie is MONSTERA DELICIOSA.  But I also recalled that there was a valid anagram of it, and eventually I unearthed STOREMAN.

Eight is the limit; the other eights are BARONETS, BROMATES, and (the other valid anagram of MONSTERA) ONSTREAM.

My selection: STOREMAN


Round 6: Target 266 from 100 75 50 4 7 7

I started by writing a fallback one-away 265 = 4*(75 - 7) - 7, and that was the best I could do within time.  I had noticed the factor of 7, but could not make the cofactor of 38 with the rest.  That was kind of frustrating as I had noted that 38 was (75 + 1)/2, but there was no 1.

After time I realised that I should have pushed the 7 inside those notional brackets and I would have found a solution: 266 = (7*75 + 7) / (100/50).  I was quite close, just needed a slight extra twist to my thinking.  Oh, well.

There's a couple of variations on that solution that involve making the final 2 less efficiently.  There's two other ways to make the 38, though, and in retrospect it should have occured to me that 1/2 is 4 - 7/2; that leads to the solution 266 = ((75 - 7) / (100/50) + 4)*7.  The other one is firmly in Sam territory: 266 = ((100*4*7 + 50) / 75)*7.

There's also one difference approach, which I find rather interesting.  The target is 2*133, and 133 is rather close to 400/3.  Noticing that could have led to finding the solution 266 = (4*100 - 7/7)*50/75.

My selection: 265 = 4*(75 - 7) - 7


Round 7: S T L B A U I N T

After the first six letters I was really hoping for another A for ABLAUTS (ABLAUT: "regular change in the internal structure of word roots, particularly in the vowel, showing alteration in function and meaning"; they give an example of sing, sang, sung, song); if I'd been playing I may well have gone vowel diving at this point.

No such luck, though, so I had BLAST, and wondered about TABULIS and TABULIST.  I decided against the latter -- correctly -- but decided to take a punt on TABULIS (hoping that TABULI would be one of the variant spellings of TABOULI: "a salad of cracked wheat, chopped parsley, mint, tomato, oil, lemon juice, etc.").  The Macquarie does not list such a spelling, though, and my answer is invalid.

(It turns out that TABULIS is valid at Scrabble, but it's not clear to me if the sense intended is as a variant form of TABOULIS or some other meaning.)

After time I finally found SUNLIT for six, although my other guesses at sixes of UNITAL and INSULA were both invalid.  A final E would really have freed up this mix, with both INSULATE and SUITABLE there to be found.  The better results would have been from an O or an R, though, with ABLUTIONS and TRIBUNALS lurking in potentia.

There's a few sixes -- commenter Sam found SULTAN while Jan and Victor found BLUNTS -- but no sevens.  Some sources would allow TUBAIST but it is not in the Macquarie.

There is an eight, however: LUTANIST (variant spelling of LUTENIST: "a player on the lute").

My selection: [invalid -- TABULIS]


Round 8: Target 488 from 10 4 7 2 10 5

Making this as 500 - 12 seems desirable at first, but hard to make work.  I had better luck with pulling out the factor of 4, as the cofactor is 122.  My first attempt was a little roundabout -- 488 = (10*(10 + 2) + 7 - 5)*4 -- but I managed to shorten is slightly to 488 = (10*(7 + 5) + 2)*4.

There's a few other solutions, of which my favourite is 488 = (10 + 4)*7*5 - 2.

My selection: 488 = (10*(7 + 5) + 2)*4


Round 9: BASIC TOMB

A fast solution for me (by my standards, at least) with the -OMB- fragment standing out.  It took me just over two seconds to find BOMBASTIC from that.

My selection: BOMBASTIC (2.1s)