NG 589

New game 589 is now available.

The re-run is episode 317; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: H L I S D E A B R

I had LIDS, SLIDE, SAILED, ABSEIL, BRAISED, BALDIES / DISABLE, was dubious about DISABLER (not valid), and late in the piece spotted HALBERDS.

There are more sevens than I felt like checking, but the other eight is BEDRAILS.

My selection: HALBERDS


Round 2: T F O E C E S R A

I had COTE, COTES, FACTORS, CREATES, FEASTER, ROSEATE, and another late spot of FORECAST.  I really should have looked at FORE- earlier than I did.

FORECAST is the only eight.  The other sevens are COASTER, REFACES, ACEROSE ("needle-shaped, as the leaves of a pine"), ACETOSE (variant spelling of ACETOUS: "sour; vinegary"), CERATES (CERATE: "an unctuous (often medicated) preparation for external application [...]") / ÉCARTÉS (ÉCARTÉ: "Ballet a position in which one arm and the leg from the same side of the body are extended"), and OCREATE ("having an ocrea or ocreae; sheathed").

My selection: FORECAST


Round 3: Target 873 from 75 3 1 10 4 6

The target is 12*75 - 27, and that offset of 27 looked makeable, as did the 12 to multiply the 75 by.  There was a common factor of 3 which needed pulling out, giving me the solution 873 = 3*(4*75 - (10 - 1)).  Then I went in a different direction: Since both 900 and 27 are divisible by 9, it's easy to see the factorisation 9*97.  97 is 22 away from 75, and it turned out that the various components could be made to cooperate, yielding 873 = (75 + 3*6 + 4)*(10 - 1).

My selection: 873 = 3*(4*75 - (10 - 1))


Round 4: N C T D O I C A A

I had DINT, ACTION / CATION, wanted a final E for ACCIDENT (or ACTIONED), noted the almost-there CATATONIC, and settled on CICADA.

There are two sevens available: ANTACID and OCTADIC (adjective derived from OCTAD, a group of eight).

My selection: CICADA
Best: ANTACID


Round 5: R I A P T U D O M

I had PAIR, TAPIR, a familiar PAROTID ("either of two saliva-producing glands situated one at the base of each ear"), IMPART, and IMPORT.  Later checking confirmed that there was no such thing as an AIRDUMP.

The other sevens are AUDITOR and PROTIUM (the common isotope of hydrogen, with no neutron).

My selection: PAROTID


Round 6: Target 361 from 4 5 1 6 7 10

The target is the square of 19, but that is always a difficult number to make cheaply, let alone twice.  Instead I turned to 360 + 1 and found 361 = (7 + 4 - 5)*6*10 + 1.  Then I looked at working up from 350 instead, and tweaked my way to another answer of 361 = 7*(5*10 + 1) + 4.

My selection: 361 = 7*(5*10 + 1) + 4


Round 7: F B A N I L U G A

I had NAIF ("a naive person"), FIBULA (one of the bones in the lower leg), IGUANA, BALING, and GAINFUL.  The -ING fragment was very not-useful here, with the other letters not playing at all well with it.

The other sevens are FABLING and FABLIAU ("one of the short metrical tales of the medieval French poets, usually rough and humorous").

My selection: GAINFUL


Round 8: Target 147 from 25 50 4 5 3 9

The target is 7*21, or 3*49, and the latter was more tempting to me.  I started with 147 = 3*(50 - (5 - 4)), then "untweaked" it to 147 = 4*25 + 50 - 3.  Finally I looked for a solution with the small numbers only, and was pleased to find 147 = (5*9 + 4)*3.

My selection: 147 = (5*9 + 4)*3


Round 9: DRAIN GOAT

The -ING fragment stood out, but again the other letters were not compatible.  Success came when I switched to considering -ATION and so found the answer of GRADATION.

My selection: GRADATION (5.8s)