NG 67

New game 67 is now available.


Round 1: T M D H I E E R T

I had TIMED, MERITED / DEMERIT, wrote down MITHERED but could not recall why I thought that was even a thing, and then found REMITTED as the safe eight.  Checking after time revealed that MITHERED would have been valid (MITHER: "Chiefly British to confuse; bewilder"); I have no idea where I would have picked that up from.

The other eight here is THERMITE.  The other sevens are THERMIT (variant spelling of THERMITE, although the Macquarie makes it the main one), EMITTED, EMITTER / TERMITE, and RETIMED / MITERED (American spelling of MITRED) / DIMETER ("Prosody a verse or line of two measures or feet").

My selection: REMITTED


Round 2: F T S E U X D O R

I had EFTS (EFT: "the common newt in its land stage"), FUSE, TUXES, FUSED, TUXEDOS, and ROUSTED.

The other sevens are FROSTED / DEFROST and DETOURS / DOUREST.  But there is an eight!  The winning word in this round is DEXTROUS.

My selection: ROUSTED


Round 3: Target 221 from 25 75 100 4 6 6

Although I recognised the target as 13*17, applying the standard method seemed clearly the better option.  A little experimentation produced 221 = 6*25 + 75 - 4, and then a bit later the tweaked option of 221 = 4*(75 - 6/6) - (100 - 25).  As time ran out I spotted another option, but I doubt I got it down in time: 221 = (4 - 6/6)*75 - 100/25.

My selection: 221 = 6*25 + 75 - 4


Round 4: B G C O E A L N I

I had CAGE, CABLING, IGNOBLE, and CONGEAL.  I also spotted LEGION CAB, but that's obviously not of use.

Yet again there is an eight, though: COINABLE.

The other sevens are ANGELIC, COINAGE, BEGONIA, and COALING (COAL as a verb: "to burn to coal or charcoal").

My selection: IGNOBLE


Round 5: S S G R A E O S M

I had GRASS, GASSER, GRASSES / GASSERS, GROSSES, and ORGASMS.  I was lucky the O wasn't an E as then I would probably have jumped the wrong way and tried MESSAGERS, which is not valid (the term being MESSENGERS).

The next morning I glanced at the letters and saw MORASSES for eight.  Oh, well.

This was outdoing by commenter Victor, though, who found the wonderful GOSSAMERS for nine.  Bravo!  Of course, that makes GOSSAMER ("a fine filmy cobweb [...]") another eight.

The other seven here is SEROSAS (SEROSA: "a serous membrane").

My selection: GRASSES


Round 6: Target 566 from 50 25 1 10 7 4

My first instinct was to try something based on 7*80 -- the leading 56 is provocative -- but then I paused to look at multiples of ten and the solution fell out easily: 566 = (50 + 7)*10 - 4.  After that I returned to the standard method; the offsets are 16 and 9, with the latter looking the more promising.  Indeed, a little effort turned up the solution 566 = (7 + 4)*50 + 25 - (10 - 1).

My selection: 566 = (50 + 7)*10 - 4


Round 7: C N F A I E M K A

I had FIANCÉ, CINEMA / ICEMAN, and FAMINE.  I also noted that a different final vowel would have been more helpful to me, with an E allowing FIANCÉE or an O allowing ENCOMIA.

There is a seven lurking here, though: ANAEMIC.

My selection: CINEMA


Round 8: Target 682 from 100 50 1 1 6 2

The standard method suggested trying to make this as 675 + 7; normally that would not be too attractive with only 100 and 50 available in the large numbers, but there was a 2 to divide by so it was not totally out of the question.  Indeed, a little tweak saw me home: 682 = (6 + 1)*(100 + 1) - 50/2.

It turns out there is only one other solution, and it was by a method that I almost found.  Specifically, the offset from 700 is 18, which is 6*3.  That makes it tempting to try and make the target as 6*(100 - 3) + 100, but that uses the 100 twice.  We can make another one by 2*50, though, but that complicates making the 3.  I ended up abandoning that approach, but a minor tweak sorts it out: 682 = 6*(2*(50 - 1) - 1) + 100.

My selection: 682 = (6 + 1)*(100 + 1) - 50/2


Round 9: RUIN DREAM

Some provocative fragments here (in particular UN- and -ED), but it still took me over twenty seconds to find UNMARRIED.

My selection: UNMARRIED (20.3s)