Monday 29 July 2013

NG 181

New game 181 is now available.  Enjoy!


Round 1: E A N D E P F K E

An unpromising last few consonants here, although if either the P or F had been a W then WEAKENED would have been an option.  As it was I had NEED, an unceratin NEAPED (not valid), KEENED (KEEN as a verb: "to wail in lamentation for the dead"), and DEAFEN.

The other sixes are PEAKED, PEEKED, and DEEPEN / PEENED (PEEN: "to treat by striking regularly all over with the peen of a hammer").

But there is a seven sneakily hiding in this mix: KNEEPAD.  The main entry is hyphenated, but the unhyphenated version is listed as an alternative.

My selection: DEAFEN
Best: KNEEPAD


Round 2: T B E T E I N N S

I had BEET, TENNIS, INTENSE, and SENTIENT.

SENTIENT is the only eight; the other sevens are INTENTS, BENNETS (BENNET being a type of herb), and BENNIES (BENNIE: "Colloquial (mildly derogatory) a male, generally from an outer suburb of a city or town and from a lower socioeconomic background, viewed as uncultured"; BENNY is colloquial for "a benzedrine pill" but for some reason the plural form is not listed).

My selection: SENTIENT


Round 3: Target 292 from 75 50 10 5 4 9

I had a little trouble with this at first, getting to one away with 291 = 5*(50 + 9) - 4.  Then I saw that the factorisation 4*73 lent itself to a handy tweak with 292 = 4*(75 - 10/5), and finished with an untweaked version of that: 292 = 4*75 - 9 + (5*10)/50.

My selection: 292 = 4*(75 - 10/5)


Round 4: U D O M C T I A S

I had COATI, COATIS, MASCOT, STADIUM, ATOMICS, and DIATOMS.  I checked up on MIDCOAST afterwards, but from past experience was sure it was not listed, and this indeed is the case.  I also checked on DIMOUTS (I believe I've seen this declared on Countdown), but it requires the hyphen: DIM-OUTS (DIM-OUT: "US a reduction or concealment of night lighting, as of a city, a ship, etc., to make it less visible from the air or sea").

Seven seems to be the limit; Scrabble would allow COADMITS but the Macquarie does not.  The other sevens are OUTSAID, DICTUMS (one acceptable plural form of DICTUM, the other being DICTA), DACOITS (DACOIT: "Indian English one of a band of armed thieves; bandit"), SOMATIC, MASTOID, and MUCOIDS (MUCOID: "any of a group of substances resembling the mucins, occurring in connective tissue, etc.").

My selection: STADIUM


Round 5: T U O O R H G S I

I had TOUR, OUTRO ("Music a fade-out at the end of a song"), TROUGH, TROUGHS, correctly rejected GROUTISH, and ROGUISH.  I also noted that an E instead of an O would have allowed RIGHTEOUS for nine.

The other sevens are OUTRIGS and RIOTOUS.  RIGHTO is listed, but as an interjection rather than a noun so it is not automatic to allow an S to be appended.

But the eight is GOITROUS ("relating to or affected with goitre").

My selection: TROUGHS
Best: GOITROUS


Round 6: Target 322 from 50 25 75 3 7 10

Attempting the standard method seems clear, with the offset being 3.  I wrote down two variations: 322 = 7*50 - 25 - 3 and 322 = 10*25 + 75 - 3.  Then I noticed the factorisation 7*46 and aimed to get that to work, succeeding with 322 = 7*(50 - 10 + 3 + 75/25).

My selection: 322 = 7*50 - 25 - 3


Round 7: R I S A E M N O L

I had AIRS, ARISE, SEMINAR, ROMANISE, SEMOLINA, NORMALISE, ALMONERS, and ALMONRIES (plural of ALMONRY: "the place where an almoner resides, or where alms are distributed").

NORMALISE / ALMONRIES are the nines; the other eights are MORALISE, MINERALS / MARLINES (MARLINE: "a small cord of two loosely twisted strands, used for seizing"), AILERONS / ALIENORS (ALIENOR: "Law someone who transfers property"), ROMAINES (ROMAINE being another name for cos lettuce) / MORAINES (MORAINE: "a ridge, mound, or irregular mass of boulders, gravel, sand and clay, transported in or on a glacier"), and LAMINOSE ("laminate; laminar").

My selection: NORMALISE


Round 8: Target 728 from 25 75 5 6 2 9

The standard method seems like the go again, with a couple of ways of making a 3.  Some experimenting led me to 728 = 2*5*75 - 25 + (9 - 6).  I also noticed the factorisation 7*104, which is 7*8*13; playing around with various combinations of the factors got me to the alternative solution 728 = (75 + 25 - 9)*(6 + 2).

My selection: 728 = 2*5*75 - 25 + (9 - 6)


Round 9: ACNE STAND

I was completely lost on this conundrum; just could not make anything longer than seven out of it.  The drawback of all the letters being common, arguably.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: ASCENDANT

8 comments:

Mike Backhouse said...

Here are mine:

PEAKED
BEETS and after time SETTEE
4*(75-10/5)=292
MASTIC and wondered about MIDCOAST (not in my second edition)
TOUGHS
(50-((10-(3+75/25)))*7=322 (now that's a scenic route)
MOLARS
9*(75+6)=729 (1 off)
x

Sam Gaffney said...

1. PEAKED
2. BENNIES?
3. 292 = (75-10/5)*4
4. STUDIO
5. TROUGHS
6. 322 = 7*50-25-3
7. NORMALISE
8. 728 = (75+5)*9+6+2
9. ~2 minutes - ASCENDANT

Victor said...

1. PEAKED (KNEEPAD after time. Mac online gives it the nod, does the print version?)
2. SENTIENT
3. 292 = 4*(75 - 10/5)
4. DIATOMS
5. TROUGHS
6. 322 = 7*50 - 25 - 3 (I like Mike's way here!)
7. NORMALISE
8. 728 = 2*5*75 - 25 + 9 - 6
9. X (had a very good game up to this point, but couldn't come close to solving this)

Geoff Bailey said...

Nice scenic route in round 6, Mike. That was the only way I found to get 7*46 to work also. I also spotted the plausible MIDCOAST but knew from past checking that it was not valid.

Sam: BENNIES gets the nod, BENNIE being listed as equivalent to BEVAN (for you Queensland types) or BOGAN (for the New South Welsh). And well done in solving the conundrum after time -- I was completely lost on it.

Victor: KNEEPAD is an excellent after-time spot, and the only seven (as far as I can tell). The main entry is listed as KNEE-PAD, but the alternative form without the hyphen is also mentioned. Congratulations on spotting SENTIENT!

Andrew Fisher said...

I had:
KNEEPAD
SENTIENT
292 (finding the needed 8 very tortuously: 9 - (50/5 over 10))
MASTOID
RIOTOUS (surprised the archaic-seeming GOITROUS is good)
322 (25x10 + 75 - 3)
Saw ALMONRIES first but NORMALISE is safer;
Thought I was two away here, but made a mistake;
Failed on ASCENDANT until 30.1 seconds.

I enjoy competing here, but I won't be able to do so every day - getting busy at work, and also I don't want to infect my mind with words that are no good in Scrabble with another Worlds on the horizon (in December). Having said that, I still look forward to finding some Macquarie-only gems such as SIHEYUAN, CHERABUN, SIGATOKA, DUMARESQ one of these days

Geoff Bailey said...

Yes, I was thinking that the Macquarie-centric focus is a bit poisonous for top-level Scrabble players. It's rather early, of course, but good luck with SCT when it rolls around!

Also, thanks for some enlightening words; personally I've been hoping for TEHSILDAR to show up ever since I encountered it in the Macquarie. I doubt I'll recognise it if it does, though, except post facto and maybe not even then as it won't show up in the word finder I use. *chuckles* (And the Macquarie does not have HERALDIST.)

In any case, I think we all appreciate you dropping by with your insights when you can. Thank you!

Sam Gaffney said...

I can appreciate Andrew wanting to avoid encountering invalid Scrabble words - I try not to expose myself to the extra-Macquarie worlds of Scrabble & Countdown (though the prospect of more L&N appearances seems remote at present).

Andrew Fisher said...

My first filming was the last of the day, and happened to be a Friday, so I was able to nab a copy of Macquarie and basically spent most of the weekend trawling through it to (1) check whether common Scrabble words like DRAGONET, TAILBONE, TRIENNIA (all OK) or EUDAIMON, SENOPIA, HEADNOTE (all bad) were playable; and (2) look for 'new' words with relatively useful letters.

None of the Macquarie-only words ever came up, except I did try to play for DOUGHIE at one point (had to settle for AGOUTI). And I did also stuff up a couple of Scrabble games subsequently, one by playing ONSELLS, and one by refusing the now-valid AEROBOT.

I have a spreadsheet of the fruits of my labour, Geoff, if you wish to see it.