NG 622

New game 622 is now available.

The re-run is episode 352; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: E G I M N OC A H

I had MINGE, OMEN, GENOMIC, was rightly dubious about CAMEOING (allowed in Scrabble, but the Macquarie does not list CAMEO as a verb), MACHINE, and ECHOING.

The other sevens are COINAGE, COAMING ("a raised border round an opening in a deck, roof, or floor designed to prevent water from running below"), ENCOMIA (plural of ENCOMIUM "a formal expression of praise; a eulogy"), and MOHICAN (allowed as lowercase when it is an adjective referring to the hairstyle).

My selection: MACHINE


Round 2: E U C I N C T R S

I had NICE, UNITE, TRUCES, and ENCRUST.  I also observed that changing a C into a T would give TINCTURES, but talked myself out of CINCTURES.

Alas, CINCTURES was valid after all, and on reflection I should have recalled this.  A CINCTURE is "a belt or girdle"; CINCTURES is the only nine, and CINCTURE is the only eight.  The other sevens are INCRUST, UNITERS, CRETINS / CISTERN, CENTRIC, and ICTERUS (another name for jaundice).

My selection: ENCRUST
Best: CINCTURES


Round 3: Target 952 from 25 100 75 5 7 10

Putting the 7 and 5 aside to make the final 2, the rest falls into place easily enough: 952 = 10*100 - 75 + 25 + 7 - 5.  Then I noticed that the 2 could also be made as 10/5, and so found an alternative of 952 = 7*(100 + 25) + 75 + 10/5.

My selection: 952 = 7*(100 + 25) + 75 + 10/5


Round 4: O L D E A F I M D

I had DOLE, LOAFED, FAILED, FIDDLE, MIDDLE, and DIADEM.  I also noticed OLD MAID, but of course that is two words.

Six is the best to be done here (I'm too lazy right now to list them); other sources might allow MELODIA, but not the Macquarie.

My selection: DIADEM


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

I had LEAN, LEARN, NEATER, NEAREST, RELATES, ETERNAL, was unsure about ETERNALS, ANTLERS, and EASTERN.  I decided against ETERNALS, but it turns out to be valid.  I mentioned this back in episode 54, where I was more dubious about it then I would be now.

The other eights are ARSENATE (any arsenic salt, loosely speaking) / SERENATA ("Music a form of pastoral cantata, often of a dramatic or imaginative character"), ASTERNAL ("Anatomy not reaching to or connecting with the sternum"), and TELERANS (TELERAN: "a system of aircraft navigation using radar to map the sky above an airfeld, which, together with the map of the airfield itself and other pertinent data, is transmitted by television to the aeroplane approaching the field").

My selection: ETERNAL
Best: ETERNALS


Round 6: Target 878 from 25 50 100 1 3 5

The target is near my favoured 875, leading quickly to 878 = 5*(100 + 50 + 25) + 3.  Looking at other approaches, I saw that I could get to 900 using 6*150, and so found 878 = (5 + 1)*(100 + 50) - 25 + 3.

My selection: 878 = 5*(100 + 50 + 25) + 3


Round 7: T E S A O E R D O

I had SATE, TEASE, TEASER, ROASTED / TORSADE ("a twisted cord"), ROSEATE, and ROOSTED.

Seven is the limit on this mix; the others are DEAREST / REDATES / TASERED (an adjective, as TASER is not listed as a verb), OERSTED (a unit of magnetic field strength) / TEREDOS (TEREDO being a genus of shipworm), and DOATERS* (DOAT is listed as a variant spelling of DOTE, and DOTER is listed as a derived form of DOTE).

My selection: ROASTED


Round 8: Target 305 from 25 100 5 9 1 4

I started with 305 = 4*(100 - 25) + 5 (for some reason eschewing what may seem like the simpler 305 = (4 - 1)*100 + 5), then used the factorisation 5*61 to get another solution of 305 = (25 + 4*9)*5.

My selection: 305 = (25 + 4*9)*5


Round 9: LIKED NERD

Both the RE- and -ED fragments were useful here, leading me to REKINDLED in quick fashion.

My selection: REKINDLED (1.4s)