NG 87

New game 87 is now available.


Round 1: O I S R T E T I E

I had TRIOS, SORTIE, and a speculative TESTIER.  I'd hoped that last vowel would have been another O for TORTOISE.  Oh, well.  In any case I decided to chance TESTIER and that was a good move -- it is valid.

After time I considered RISOTTI but the plural of RISOTTO is RISOTTOS.  I also observed that OTTERIES could be made from those letters, but not surprisingly there does not seem to be a term for places where one raises otters.

There is one other seven, though: ROSETTE.

My selection: TESTIER


Round 2: S F O A A H R M O

I had SOFA, HARAM (which I mentioned recently in NG 62; it means "forbidden by Islamic law"), FARMS, FORMS, correctly rejected FORMOSA, and ended up with the six of SHROOM (colloquial for "a hallucinogenic mushroom").  After time I found a less colloquial six of ASHRAM ("a community of people, together for spiritual development, as through yoga, meditation, etc.").

The other sixes are AROMAS and SHOFAR ("an ancient Jewish musical instrument of the trumpet kind, usually made of the curved horn of a ram, still used in Jewish religious services").

My selection: SHROOM


Round 3: Target 698 from 75 50 25 3 9 8

The offset of two for the standard method looks difficult to find and use.  I wrote down a fallback one-away 697 = 8*(75 + 9) + 25, then a little later one away in the other direction with 699 = 9*75 + 3*8.  Then I saw that the offset of 48 was much more useful, and found the solution of 698 = 8*(75 + 9 - 3) + 50.

My selection: 698 = 8*(75 + 9 - 3) + 50


Round 4: T N G R E I A E N

The -ING showed up early, which seemed helpful.  I had RENT, INERT, TEARING, EARNING, and ENTERING.  I flirted with the ideas of INTERNAGE, ANTIGREEN, and ANTIGENRE, but none of them are words.

After time I contemplated GRATINÉE as another eight; I know that's turned up on Countdown before but also was (correctly) pretty sure it was not in the Macquarie.  Chambers does list it, as a female form of GRATINÉ meaning "cooked or served au gratin".

But a bit after sorting through those thoughts I went in another direction and spotted TANGERINE as a nine here.  That would have been nice to spot.

There is another nine, too: ARGENTINE ("relating to or resembling silver").  ENTERING is the only eight, and there are many sevens.

My selection: ENTERING


Round 5: E I A S B B S R A

I had BASE, BABIES, BRAISES, BARBIES (BARBIE being colloquial for a barbecue), ABASERS, and BRASSIE (variant form of BRASSY, a type of golf club).

Seven is the best to be done -- AIR BASES is two words -- and the above are all of them.

My selection: BRAISES


Round 6: Target 886 from 75 25 100 10 5 8

I started with one off with 885 = 8*(100 + 10) + 5.  That was the best I could manage, and it turns out that is the best possible -- the target is not reachable.

My selection: 885 = 8*(100 + 10) + 5


Round 7: C U G L I O D P D

I had LOGIC, LUCID, and COULD / CLOUD.

Five looks like the best; there's a few others, with the more common ones being GUILD, CUPID, and OCULI (plural of OCULUS: "Architecture a circular opening, especially one at the apex of a dome").

My selection: LOGIC


Round 8: Target 652 from 100 3 7 5 8 3

Working down from 700 was fairly tempting, and the offset of 48 is easily managed.  The resulting solution was 652 = 7*100 - 8*(3 + 3).

My selection: 652 = 7*100 - 8*(3 + 3)


Round 9: DIRE POEMS

I was distracted by PROMISED for a bit but fortunately managed to avoid buzzing in with it.  It took me a while to consider the IMP- fragment, and to decide to chance REIMPOSED.  That turns out to be the answer.

My selection: REIMPOSED (9.7s)