Wednesday 28 August 2013

NG 203

New game 203 is now available.


Round 1: E S L O W E A N C

I had LOSE, SWALE ("a low place in a tract of land, usually moister and often having a ranker vegetation than the adjacent higher land"), CANOES / OCEANS, LANCES, SOLACE, and was contemplating ENSOLACE (not a word) when I spotted ENCLOSE for seven.

Seven appears to be the limit (although I am rather taken by the idea of an OWLSEANCE); the others are CLEANSE / ENLACES / SCALENE ("(of a triangle) having three unequal sides").

My selection: ENCLOSE


Round 2: B O H D I U C D I

I had an uncertain BODHI (valid: "the awakening that is achieved by a buddha; enlightenment"), an uncertain CHID (it is an alternative past tense of CHIDE, but I thought it might be archaic; it is listed, however), OUCH, wondered if CHIBI had made it into the Macquarie (it has not), and was relieved to find CUBOID for six.

CUBOID seems to be the only six; the other fives are IODIC, IODID (variant form of IODIDE), and DHOBI ("South Asian English someone employed to do washing; a launderer (traditionally a male Indian who washes clothes by hand)").  For good measure, the other fours are ODIC ("of an ode"), CHUB (a type of fish), and BIDI ("Indian English a cheap cigarette made from tobacco twisted in a tobacco leaf").

Update: Commenter Mike pointed out another four of DUCO ("a type of paint, especially as applied to the body work of a motor vehicle").  Thanks, Mike!

My selection: CUBOID


Round 3: Target 172 from 25 2 8 10 4 4

I went on a bit of a wild goose chase at first trying to make this as 344/2, then adopted a more prosaic approach to find 172 = 8*25 - 2*(10 + 4).  Then I pulled out the factor of 4 for the simpler 172 = 4*(25 + 10 + 8).

My selection: 172 = 8*25 - 2*(10 + 4)


Round 4: M E S M I S L A N

I had MIMES, SEMIS, SLIMES, AIMLESS, and MISNAMES.  If only one of those M's had been an N then MANLINESS would have been there.

The other eights are MELISMAS (MELISMA: "a group of musical notes sung to one syllable") and MELANISM ("the condition of having a high amount of dark or black pigment granules in the skin, hair, and eyes of a human being or the skin and surface structure of any other animal").  Moreover, it's reasonable that this latter is pluralisable, so MELANISMS could be a full monty here.  There's been quite the run of those in recent days.

My selection: MISNAMES
Best: MELANISMS (probably)


Round 5: R O I P A Y T M I

I had PAIR and TOPIARY.

TOPIARY is the only seven, but there is an eight: IMPARITY ("lack of parity or equality; disparity; an inequality").  The sixes are IMPAIR, IMPART / ARMPIT, PARITY, IMPORT, MYOPIA, and OPTIMA (one plural form of OPTIMUM).

My selection: TOPIARY
Best: IMPARITY


Round 6: Target 569 from 25 50 75 7 9 5

I started a little confused, then decided to use 7*75 as a base point.  The offset is 44 so I wrote down a fallback one-away 570 = 7*75 + 9*5.  I should have spotted the right tweak at that point but I got to the same result by a different route, considering the target as 560 + 9.  That led me to an answer of 569 = 7*(75 + 5) + 9.

My selection: 569 = 7*(75 + 5) + 9


Round 7: N U U S F E C T I

I had FUSE and INFECTS, no doubt helped by its appearance in yesterday's game.

INFECTS appears to be the only seven and the best to be done.

My selection: INFECTS


Round 8: Target 667 from 25 50 100 5 10 9

I struggled far too much with this one.  After a bit of flailing I went for two away with 665 = 9*(100 - 25) - 10, then realised that I could improve it to one off with 666 = 9*(100 - 25 - 5*10/50), but that was my limit.

There is a solution, however -- just the one -- and I was close to it in a sense: 667 = 9*(100 - 25) - (50 - 10)/5.  On a better day I might have found that.

My selection: 666 = 9*(100 - 25 - 5*10/50)  [1 off]
Best: 667 = 9*(100 - 25) - (50 - 10)/5


Round 9: AFTER LUBE

I pulled out the -ABLE fragment but could not make anything from the rest.  Then I tried -FUL, also with no success.  In the end my only plausible answer was BEATERFUL, but I didn't even like it enough to try it.

As it turns out, I needed to pay a bit more attention to that -ABLE fragment.  Which should have been clear, really, it was by far the most tempting option.  Oh, well.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: REFUTABLE

6 comments:

Unknown said...

1. enclose
2. ibid
3. (25+10+8)4 =172
4. mailmen
5. import
6. 5(75+25) +50+9+7 =566 (3 off)
7. infects
8. 5(100+25) +50 -9 =666 (1 off)
9. refutable (14.4)

Geoff, thanks for the tips solving yesterday's numbers (helped with game3 today).

Victor said...

1. CLEANSE
2. CUBOID
3. 172 = 8*(25 - 4) + 4
4. SEMINAL
5. PARITY (never heard of IMPARITY)
6. 569 = 9*(75 - 5 - 7) + 50/25
7. INFECTS
8. 1-away: 666 = 5*(100 + 25) + 50 - 9
9. REFUTABLE - 2.4s - lots of -ABLE conundrums lately...

Mike Backhouse said...

Well done all on the games.

CLEANS (missed the extra E at the end)
x -after time DUCO (found this hard)
8*(25-(10/2-2))+4=172
SMILES
PARTY
5*(25+75)+50+7+9=566 (3 off)
INFECTS
5*(100+25)+50-10=665 (2 off)
x

Mike Backhouse said...

I obviously meant -4 not +4 in round 3.

Sam Gaffney said...

Couldn't beat a three-letter word in Round 2, but Round 8 provided consolation.

1. CLEANSE
2. CUB
3. 172 = 8*(25 - 4) + 4
4. AIMLESS
5. IMPORT
6. 569 = (75+5)*7 + 9
7. INFECTS
8. 667 = 9*(100-25) - (50-10)/5
9. REFUTABLE - 4.5s

Geoff Bailey said...

Ooh, nice spot of MAILMEN, Louise, and I'm glad to help with the numbers tips. That's one of my goals, but mostly there's not too much to say about them. Unfortuantely, IBID. is an abbreviation of IBIDEM and not valid on its own.

Mike: Good catch with DUCO -- I've updated the post to reflect this.

Sam: Congratulations on solving round 8!