NG 574

New game 574 is now available.

The re-run is episode 302; its rounds are here, and its writeup is here.


Round 1: D E O S I F R A C

I had DOES, FRIES, SCARFED, and FIACRES.  After time I noted FEDORAS as another seven.  I had also observed that an A instead of that last C would have allowed AFORESAID for nine, but it still took me another half minute or so to realise that FORESAID was fine on its own.  Whoops!

The other eight is IDOCRASE (another name for the mineral vesuvianite).  The other sevens are ROADIES, CARDIES (CARDIE being colloquial for a cardigan) / SIDECAR / RADICES (one plural form of RADIX: "a root"), CODEIAS (CODEIA being another name for codeine), and SCORIAE (plural of SCORIA) / ORACIES* (ORACY: "basic competence in oral communication").

My selection: FIACRES
Best: FORESAID


Round 2: T N T E A I I S F

I had TENT, TAINT, SATINET ("an inferior kind of satin containing cotton"), and FAINTEST.  After time I noted FATTIES and TANTIES (TANTIE listed as a variant of TANTY, colloquial for "a tantrum") as other sevens, and a bit later found another eight of NIFTIEST.

That's both eights mentioned.  The other sevens are TINIEST, FATTENS, NIFTIES (NIFTY as a noun: "something nifty, as a smart or clever remark"), TITIANS (TITIAN without a capital: "a reddish or reddish brown colour"), INSTATE ("to put into a certain state, condition, or position"), and FAINEST.

My selection: FAINTEST


Round 3: Target 720 from 25 75 50 9 9 8

The target is 8*90, or 9*80.  I was not able to do much with either approach, but fortunately thought to turn those into 8*9*10 and finally found an answer: 720 = (9 + (75 - 50)/25)*9*8.

My selection: 720 = (9 + (75 - 50)/25)*9*8


Round 4: E O N H A C U R T

I had HONE, CANOE, RAUNCH ("to embrace in a sexually provocative way"), CHANTER / TRANCHE ("a portion or share of anything, especially stocks or shares"), CENTAUR, ANOTHER, and COURANTE ("an old-fshioned dance [...]").  I also noted that a second C instead of the N would allow CARTOUCHE ("an oval or oblong figure, as on ancient Egyptian monuments, enclosing characters which express royal names").

The other eights are OUTREACH and ANCHORET (variant form of ANCHORITE: "someone who has retired to a solitary place for a life of religious seclusion; hermit; recluse").  The other sevens are COUNTER / TROUNCE / RECOUNT, TOUCHER / RETOUCH / COUTHER, COURANT (variant spelling of COURANTE), ENACTOR, UNEARTH / HAUNTER, UNTEACH, CHUNTER ("to move in a leisurely fashion"), and URETHAN (variant form of URETHANE, a type of chemical).

My selection: COURANTE


Round 5: G T E A I N L D P

I had GATE, EATING, GELATIN, PLEADING, PLEATING, was uncertain about PEDALING (valid), and TALIPED ("club-footed").  After time I noted another eight of DELATING (DELATE: "to inform against; denounce or accuse").

That's all the eights; the other sevens are PLATING, PELTING, PEALING / LEAPING, LEADING / DEALING / ALIGNED, ELATING / GENITAL, TANGLED, TINGLED / GLINTED, PAINTED, PLANTED, PLAITED, LIGATED (LIGATE: "to bind, as with a ligature; tie up, as a bleeding artery"), PLAINED (PLAIN as a verb being an archaic variant of COMPLAIN), and PANTILE ("a roofing tile straight in its length but with an S-shaped cross-section so that the downward side of one tile overlaps the upward side of the adjacent tile").

My selection: PLEADING


Round 6: Target 264 from 100 25 6 8 10 6

My first thought was to make the target as 6*44, and my second as 8*33.  I struggled to get either to work, but fortunately spotted that the standard method worked pretty easily: 264 = 10*25 + 8 + 6.  After time I found a way to make 6*44 work with 264 = (6*8 - 100/25)*6.

My selection: 264 = 10*25 + 8 + 6


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

I had WANE, WOMAN, ANOMIE, AIRWOMEN, spotted WOMANLIER but recalled from episode 443 that this was not valid, AILERON, and MANLIER.

RAILWOMEN is not listed either, so AIRWOMEN is the best to be done, and the only eight.  The other sevens are MINERAL / RAILMEN / MARLINE ("a small cord of two loosely twisted strands, used for seizing"), ALMONER ("a social worker with some medical training attached to a hospital"), ALIENOR, MORAINE / ROMAINE, LAWNIER*, and LOAMIER*.

My selection: AIRWOMEN


Round 8: Target 331 from 1 3 7 9 8 5

For some reason my early consideration was 5*8*9, which is 360.  The offset is 29, which I could not quite tweak to, but it got me to one off with 330 = 8*(9*5 - 3) - 7 + 1.  Then I went about things a bit more systematically: I divided by 9 to find that the target was near 9*37, and approximated that as 9*35; the offset was 16, and the remaining numbers could make that without even needing to tweak.  The resulting solution is 331 = 5*7*9 + (3 - 1)*8.

There's quite a few solutions to this, it turns out, but one of the simplest is 331 = (9 - 3)*7*8 - 5.

My selection: 331 = 5*7*9 + (3 - 1)*8


Round 9: WEAK DROPS

My selection: [N/A -- chosen]
Best: SPADEWORK


An almost-maximal game for me, with just round one dropped.  Eight-letter words were the best in each letters round, making this the highest-scoring possibly game without a full monty.