NG 602

New game 602 is now available.

The re-run is episode 332; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: C I N D E A L R O

I had NICE, DANCE, LANCED, CARIOLE ("a small, open, two-wheeled vehicle"), DARIOLE ("a type of small, cup-shaped mould"), and was unsure about DECANOL (not valid).  After time I noted other sevens of CORNEAL and CORDIAL, and finally the eight of COLANDER.

Some sources would allow the nine of CLARIONED, but not the Macquarie.  The other eights are IRONCLAD and ACROLEIN (a certain chemical).  I was a little surprised that COLINEAR was not listed.

The other sevens are ORDINAL, CAIRNED, CLARION / CLARINO ("the high register of the trumpet"), ANEROID, AILERON / ALIENOR (a legal term: "someone who transfers property"), CALDRON (variant spelling of CAULDRON), CAROLED (American spelling of CAROLLED), CELADON (a certain shade of green), DECRIAL / RADICEL ("(in botany) a minute root; a rootlet") / RADICLE ("a rudimentary root; a radicel or rootlet"), OCEANID ("an ocean nymph"), NODICAL ("of or relating to the node or nodes", for the astronomical sense of "node"), CARLINE (a plant, also Scottish for an old woman, or perhaps a witch), and CALORIE / LORICAE (plural of LORICA: "a hard protective case or sheath [...]") / COALIER*.

My selection: DARIOLE
Best: COLANDER


Round 2: F B A W L I A G A

Ergh, too many A's.  I had BAWL and LABIA.  I also noted AGLAIA, but figured that would be proper if it were even listed.  According to Wikipedia, it is also the name of a tree found in northern Australia, but strangely that is not listed in the Macquarie.  That seems unusual.

Some sources give GALABIA as a variant spelling of DJELLABA, but not the Macquarie.  That leaves five as the best to be done, and the other is WILGA (a type of tree).

My selection: LABIA


Round 3: Target 463 from 50 75 100 10 4 8

The offsets for the standard method are 12 and 13, and 12 is usually the more manageable.  In this case we have it as 4 + 8, and the goal is to get to 475 with the rest.  That can be done, and gave me 463 = 10*50 - 100 + 75 - 4 - 8.

My selection: 463 = 10*50 - 100 + 75 - 4 - 8


Round 4: E S R I T A C S E

I had RISE, TIRES, SATIRE, RACIEST, SCARIEST, ACTRESS, and rejected SECTARIES and SECRETIA.  Alas, to my regret, SECTARIES was valid (SECTARY: "a member of, or one zealously devoted to, a particular sect").  Bother.

The revised rules would allow the nine of CREASIEST*.  The other eight is SERIATES (SERIATE: "arranged or occurring in one or more series").

My selection: SCARIEST
Best: SECTARIES


Round 5: E P U I D T R G I

I had PIED, DIGIT, TURGID, fretted over RIPTIDE but rightly rejected it (it requires a hyphen), PITIED, and PUTRID.

Similarly to RIP-TIDE, TIDE-RIP requires a hyphen; that leaves the only seven as PUDGIER.  The other sixes are GRIPED, GUIDER, PURGED, TIDIER, TRUDGE, PITIER, DUGITE, EURIPE (plural of EURIPUS: "a strait, especially one in which the flow of waters in both directions is violent"), and PITURI ("a narcotic preparation made from the leaves and twigs of the Australian shrub Duboisia hopwoodii, traditionally used as a drug by Aboriginal people; an important trade item in traditional Aboriginal culture").

My selection: TURGID
Best: PUDGIER


Round 6: Target 567 from 75 9 10 1 3 4

The target is 7*81, and I looked at making the 7 as 4 + 3.  The remaining small numbers handily worked out, yielding 567 = 9*(10 - 1)*(4 + 3).  Then I looked at the alternative way of making the 7 as 10 -3, getting 567 = (10 - 3)*(75 + 9 + 1 - 4).  Finally, I reorganised the factorisation as 9*63, getting 567 = 9*(75 - 3*4).

My selection: 567 = 9*(75 - 3*4)


Round 7: N E B L N N T O E

I had a speculative NOBLE after the first four letters, BENT, and ENNOBLE.

The sixes are BONNET, BENNET (a type of plant), and LENTEN (a bit to my surprise, the lowercase version is allowed).

My selection: ENNOBLE


Round 8: Target 587 from 50 100 8 8 6 4

Oh, I'm very pleased with this one.  With everything even, making an odd target figures to be very difficult.  The target is nearly halfway between multiples of 25, which means that twice it is near a multiple of 25.  In turn, that means that four times it is near a multiple of 50, or eight times it is near a multiple of 100.  That latter was more tempting, since the offset will be 4, and we have both an 8 and a 4.  Doing the calculations, 587 is 4694/8, which is (4700 - 4)/8.  A little experimentation with that idea produced a solution of 587 = (50*(100 - 6) - 4)/8

There are three other solutions, but none of them are particularly easy to spot.  The most approachable is to make the target as 625 - 38, leading to 587 = 50*100/8 - 4*8 - 6.

My selection: 587 = (50*(100 - 6) - 4)/8


Round 9: THREE ICES

I was briefly distracted by HERETICS, but that is a letter short.  The key is to look at -IEST, and then it is not too hard to find CHEERIEST.

My selection: CHEERIEST (3.2s)