NG 370

New game 370 is now available.


Round 1: R T I O N E I C G

I had RIOT, NITRO, ORIENT, and RECITING.

The other eight is GERONTIC ("of or relating to old age").  The sevens are RIOTING, NOTICER, CITRINE / INCITER / CRINITE ("hairy") / NERITIC ("of or relating to the shallow waters near land"), TIERING / IGNITER, GENITOR ("a father in the biological sense, sometimes distinguished from a legal or acting father"), TRICING (TRICE as a verb: "Nautical to pull or haul with a rope"), and ONEIRIC ("of or relating to dreams").

My selection: RECITING


Round 2: E F A E C M N B W

I had FACE, rightly rejected FACEMEN, and BECAME.

Six is the best to be done; the others are MENACE, WEBCAM, CABMEN, and ENFACE ("to write, print, or stamp something on the face of (a note, draft, etc.)").

My selection: BECAME


Round 3: Target 192 from 75 50 6 4 5 7

I recognised the target as 3*64, which is thus 6*32.  I spent a while trying to make it from the small numbers alone, without success, before giving up that restriction and going with 192 = (75 - 50 + 7)*6.

My selection: 192 = (75 - 50 + 7)*6


Round 4: L A R P T I O N E

I had a dubious LARP (an initialism for "live-action role-playing", but as expected it is completely capitalised and hence not valid), PART, TRAIL, PORTAL / PATROL, an uncertain TRAPLINE (not valid), RATLINE, EPILATOR, and wondered about INTERLAP (not valid).

After time I noted down some other options: POINTER / PROTEIN (and confirmed that there was no such word as PROTEINAL), PLAINER, PLANTER,  and then saw another eight of PETIOLAR ("of, relating to, or growing from a petiole"; a PETIOLE is "the stalk by which a leaf is attached to the stem").  And then a bit after that I was forcibly reminded of just how unused I have become to decent letter mixes as I finally found a very familiar pair of RELATION / ORIENTAL.

Later checking showed that TRAPLINE / INTERLAP were both allowed in Scrabble, but the valid anagram of them that I missed was TRIPLANE.  The other eight is ATROPINE (a certain chemical used in eye drops).

My selection: EPILATOR


Round 5: S R S E R E L A A

I had ERRS, SEERS, SEALERS / RESEALS, ARRASES (ARRAS: "a wall hanging"), and rightly rejected LASERERS.

Seven is the best to be done; the others are ERASERS and EARLESS / LEASERS / RESALES.

My selection: SEALERS


Round 6: Target 826 from 75 10 6 8 3 4

A start of 75*11 was clear, getting to just one away, and the final adjustment was easy enough: 826 = (8 + 3)*75 + (6 + 4)/10.  Then I considered the option of 10*82 or 10*83, and found the shorter 826 = (75 + 8)*10 - 4.

My selection: 826 = (75 + 8)*10 - 4


Round 7: M I H T U L E A V

All I had here was HELIUM, although I did not that a final A instead of the V would have allowed HUMILIATE.  After time I noted VALIUM as another six.

Again it looks like six is the best to be done.  The others are AMULET, HAMLET, ULTIMA ("the last syllable of a word"), HALITE (another name for rock salt), HAMULI (plural of HAMULUS: "a small hook or hooklike process, as at the end of a bone"), ELUVIA (plural of ELUVIUM: "a deposit of soil, dust, etc., originating in the place where found as through decomposition of rock"), and TELIUM ("the sorus of the rust fungi bearing teliospores").

My selection: HELIUM


Round 8: Target 949 from 25 100 4 4 9 10

My first thought was to make this as 940 + 9, but I had difficulties with that.  I wrote down a fallback one-off 950 = (100 - (9 - 4))*10, and kept exploring.  Fortunately I managed to find my way to a solution via 925 + 24, although I stared for a little while at 4, 4, 10 before I realised I could make the required 24 from it after all.  The resulting solution is 949 = 9*100 + 25 + 4*(10 - 4).

My selection: 949 = 9*100 + 25 + 4*(10 - 4)


Round 9: PAY CASTLE

I was not able to solve this one within time; the best I came up with was PLACATES.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: CATALEPSY