NG 614

New game 614 is now available.

The re-run is episode 344; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: O G U E B S H A R

Gah, I messed up here.  After the first five letters I speculated that BROGUES might turn up.  But I'd forgotten it by the time the R emerged, and I never found it again.  *sigh*  Anyway, I had BOUSE (variant spelling of BOWSE), BRUSH, AROUSE, and pondered but rightly rejected BROUGHS (apparently valid in Scrabble).  Shortly after time, inevitably, I spotted BROGUES.

The eight to be found here is BEARHUGS; some other sources would also allow BAGHOUSE, but not the Macquarie.  The other sevens are BEARHUG and BORAGES (BORAGE being a type of plant).

My selection: AROUSE
Best: BEARHUGS


Round 2: O A I D C M E S N

I had ACID, COMEDIA (alternative spelling of KOMEDYA: "a once-popular Philippine dramatic form dealing with the conflict between Christians and Moors in early medieval Europe"), COMEDIAS, and the hope-for N arrived to give COMEDIANS.  I also noted COMEDIAN and DEMONIC within time.

The other nine is DEMONIACS (DEMONIAC as a noun: "somone seemingly possessed by a demon or evil spirit").  The other eights are DEMONIAC / DAEMONIC and DIOCESAN / OCEANIDS (OCEANID: "an ocean nymph").

My selection: COMEDIANS


Round 3: Target 815 from 75 50 100 9 2 6

It seemed difficult to make the required offsets, and I wrote down a fallback two off 817 = 9*100 - 75 - 6 - 2.  I hit a bit of a frustrating patch, as for a while it seemed that every approach I considered also led to 817; I noted down 817 = (9 + 2)*75 - 6 - 100/50 and then moved further afield to 817 = (50*100 + 2)/6.  I was particularly disappointed at that last one not yielding better.  Late in the piece I managed to improve to one away with 814 = 9*(100 - (6 - 2)) - 50, and that was the best I could find.

After time I noted a simpler way to one off with 816 = 6*(100 + 50) - 75 - 9, but a solution continued to be elusive.  Later checking revealed that the target was unreachable, and one off is the best to be done.

My selection: 814 = 9*(100 - (6 - 2)) - 50


Round 4: G O E I W T N F D

I had TWIG, TOEING, WIDGEON, TWINGED, and was dubious about WEFTING (not valid, although it did turn up in the Scrabble list).

Seven is the best to be done here; the others are INGOTED and WONGIED (WONGI: "Perth Region Aboriginal English to talk").

My selection: WIDGEON


Round 5: N K T O B P A H I

Bleah, uncooperative letters.  I had KNOT, PANTO, PAINT, and OBTAIN.  I also observed HOT PINK in those letters, but of course that is not valid.

Six is the limit on these letters.  The others are PHOBIA, HATPIN, KATIPO (as I mentioned recently in NG 610, a KATIPO is "a venomous New Zealand spider [...]"), KATION (variant spelling of CATION), and BHAKTI ("Hinduism devotional religious worship, with an emphasis on daily service to a particular deity, saint or guru").

My selection: OBTAIN


Round 6: Target 257 from 50 75 25 4 3 2

The offset for the standard method is 7, so I put the 4 and 3 aside and tried to get to 250 with the rest.  A little thought produced 257 = 2*(75 + 50) + 4 + 3; seen just now is another option of 257 = (2 + 75/25)*50 + 4 + 3.  Then I noticed that the target was 18 away from 275, and 18 is formable from the small numbers and allows tweaking options.  That gave me an alternative solution of 257 = 3*(75 - 4 - 2) + 50.

My selection: 257 = 2*(75 + 50) + 4 + 3


Round 7: R Q E S C A E S M

That Q is a spoiler, as it usually is.  I had SCARE, CREASE, CREASES, SCREAMS, and AMERCES (AMERCE: "to punish by inflicting a discretionary penalty of any kind") / RACEMES.

The other seven here is SEAMERS.

My selection: CREASES


Round 8: Target 429 from 75 50 10 1 10 7

Making an offset of 4 seemed expensive in the small numbers, so I shifted my attention to 430 - 1 and thus found 429 = (50 - 7)*10 - 1.

Seen while writing this up is that the expensive 4 still yields a working approach: 429 = 10*50 - 75 + 10 - 7 + 1.

My selection: 429 = (50 - 7)*10 - 1


Round 9: BRAVE MOLE

I chose this conundrum, so can't comment too usefully on it.  In this case the key is to use the -ABLE fragment.

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