NG 86

New game 86 is now available.


Round 1: R T O I R K B U H

I had TRIO, a speculative TROIKA but the A did not turn up, ORBIT, THROB / BROTH, and was about to write down BURRO also (aided by Mike having found it in NG 85) when I spotted the longer option of BURRITO.  And I hope I'm not the only person who thought of this ad as a result.

That's the only seven, and there don't seem to be any sixes.  The other fives are BURRO, TURBO, BIRTH, BRUIT ("to noise abroad; rumour"), and HOURI ("any alluring woman, especially one of Middle Eastern origin").

My selection: BURRITO


Round 2: S C E E E R B T U

I had CEES (plural of CEE, the letter, or so I thought... but the Macquarie does not list such; oops) and SECRETE.

After time I checked up on BECRUST, but it's not listed and SECRETE is the only seven.  There's a decent selection of sixes (such as SECRET / ERECTS and BUSTER), but it turns out that there is an eight after all.  It is BERCEUSE: "a cradlesong; lullaby".  Definitely a new word to me!

My selection: SECRETE


Round 3: Target 309 from 75 50 9 6 8 5

The standard method is easily applied to give 309 = 6*50 + 9.  I could not find any sufficiently interesting alternative in the remaining time.

My selection: 309 = 6*50 + 9


Round 4: L C D A E E R A O

I had CLAD, LACED, rejected RELACED but found its anagrams of DECLARE / CLEARED, then CALDERA (memories of NG 81) and pondered CALDERAE as a possible alternative plural form.  I did not think it likely, though, and that was correct on my part.

Seven looks like the limit -- the Macquarie does not list COLEADER -- and the others are CAROLED (American spelling of CAROLLED), CREEDAL (adjective derived from CREED), ACEROLA (a type of tree also known as a Barbados cherry), and AREOLAE (plural of AREOLA: "a small ring of colour, as around a pustule or the human nipple").

My selection: CALDERA


Round 5: G R U I O M D M I

Gah, an awkward mix.  Once more my speculative writing-down of words did not pay off, as the E for MORGUE did not turn up.  I had GRIM and IDIOM.  After time I noted RIGID as another five, and saw MIDORI but recalled from other occasions that it is not valid.

There is a six, though, using the -IUM ending that I spent a lot of time looking at.  It is OIDIUM ("one of a chain of spores budded off from the end of the hyphae of a fungus, which attacks the green parts of a grape vine"), and although I've made passing mention of it before (in episode 2) it's no wonder that it has not stuck in the memory.

The other fives are GOURD, ODIUM, and GUIRO ("a percussion instrument consisting of a dried empty gourd, which has parallel notches across which a stick is drawn").

My selection: IDIOM


Round 6: Target 981 from 25 100 75 50 10 1

Clearly 10*100 is close, and before I could get too carried away with unlikely options I spotted that 10*98 was closer and found the solution 981 = 10*(100 - 50/25) + 1.

There's a few variants on this idea, including an intermediate step above a thousand with 981 = 10*(100 + 75/25) - 50 + 1.

My selection: 981 = 10*(100 - 50/25) + 1


Round 7: N C C P I A A E T

I had PANIC, PECAN, and CAPTAIN.  I wondered about CAPITANCE but it's not a word; most likely I was using wishful thinking based of CAPACITANCE.

Seven is the limit; the others are PATINAE (plural of PATINA: "a broad, shallow dish used by the ancient Romans") and PECCANT ("sinning or offending" in adjectival senses).  The Macquarie does not have PICANTE.

My selection: CAPTAIN


Round 8: Target 566 from 75 25 50 8 3 2

I was tempted to start by getting close with (8 + 3)*50, but thinking about the offset first put me on the right track.  The necessary offsets are 9 or 16, and 16 is 2*8.  That was clearly tempting, and a small tweak produced a solution: 566 = 8*(75 + 2) - 50.

My selection: 566 = 8*(75 + 2) - 50


Round 9: BIG MESONS

With -ING in play I managed to avoid getting sidetracked by the -NESS fragment and found the right answer reasonably quickly.  The pair of S's were likely to go together, which must have helped.

My selection: EMBOSSING (2.4s)