NG 83

New game 83 is up.


Round 1: W T I C C A C K E

I had TACK, WAIT (a bit late to spot that one), WICKET, and ACETIC.

Those look like the only sixes; the fives are TWEAK, TWICE, CACTI, and WACKE ("a soft rock of fine texture, derived from disintegrated basaltic rocks").

My selection: WICKET


Round 2: E A I C R L R N G

I had CARE, CLEAR, CARREL ("(in a library) a small area or cubicle used by students and others for individual study"), and CLEARING.

That is the only eight (GNARLY is listed, but not GNARLIER).  There's quite a few sevens, as one might expect.

My selection: CLEARING


Round 3: Target 348 from 50 75 2 7 6 8

The target is divisible by 6, and the cofactor is 58; I started off avoiding the large numbers with 358 = 6*(7*8 + 2), then shortened it to 358 = 6*(50 + 8).  Then I finally noticed the obvious 348 = 7*50 - 2.

My selection: 348 = 7*50 - 2


Round 4: O A U M N S H M S

I had MOAN, MASON, HUMANS, and MASONS.

There are two sevens here: SUMMONS (well done to Victor on finding this) and HANSOMS (likewise well found by Sam; HANSOM being a type of carriage).

My selection: MASONS


Round 5: L T A R S E M F A

Some good letters in this round.  I had STAR, ALTERS, FALTERS, and MALATES (MALATE: "a salt or ester of malic acid").  It felt like there was something longer but I could not find it if so.

It turns out there is an eight here, and annoyingly it is a word I was thinking of a few days prior.  A FERMATA is "Music the fermata symbol [...] placed under or over a note or rest to indicate that it is to be prolonged", so FERMATAS is an eight.

The other sevens are FERMATA, FLAMERS, MALTASE (a type of enzyme) / TAMALES, and ARMLETS.

My selection: FALTERS


Round 6: Target 216 from 1 8 4 4 9 5

We had 212 in yesterday's game, so the fact that 216 = 6*6*6 should hopefully still be fresh in the memory.  That's 6*36, and finding 216 = (5 + 1)*4*9 is easy enough.  The other option I noted was 216 = 8*9*(4 - 1).

My selection: 216 = (5 + 1)*4*9


Round 7: L N E P R I D S I

I had PERIL, a speculative PRALINE that did not pan out, SPIDER, INSIDER, and wondered about DRIPLINES and RIPLINES (neither valid, unsurprisingly) then found a safe eight of INSPIRED.  And then I saw SPINDLIER as another possible nine; with a bit of nervousness I decided to try it, and this time the Macquarie did list the comparative form.  Huzzah!

Those are the only nine and eight; the other sevens are SPINDLE / SPLINED (SPLINE: "Machinery to fit with a spline or key"; here SPLINE as a noun is "one of a number of uniformly spaced keys cut into a shaft parallel to its axis"), PILSNER, INSPIRE / SPINIER, INLIERS (INLIER: "(in geology) an outcrop of a formation completely surrounded by younger strata") / RESILIN ("an elastic material [...]"), LIPIDES (LIPIDE being a variant form of LIPID: "any of a large group of organic compounds including fats and oils [...]"), and SPLENII (plural of SPLENIUS: "either of a pair of flat muscles which run obliquely upwards on the back and sides of the neck").

My selection: SPINDLIER


Round 8: Target 916 from 8 7 1 9 10 4

A large target for six small numbers, but the difficulty is more due to the lack of intermediate values to work with.  I got far too hung up on trying to make this as 10*92 - 4 and that was not a winning option.  In the end I had to scramble to get anything down within time and could only manage 7 away with 909 = 9*(4*(10 + 8 + 7) + 1).  Ouch.

Shortly after time I found a relatively easy one away with 917 = 7*((9 + 4)*10 + 1).

It's a tough mix, but it turns out there is a unique solution: 916 = (10 + 9)*8*6 + 4.

My selection: 909 = 9*(4*(10 + 8 + 7) + 1)


Round 9: PUNT ATOLL

I got sidetracked by OUT- for a bit, then looked at PLANT and that guided me to the answer of POLLUTANT.

My selection: POLLUTANT (6.2s)