NG 676

New game 676 is now available.


Round 1: L P O D T S E O I

I had PLOD, DOLTS, DEPOTS, LOOPIEST*, DIPOLES (DIPOLE: "a pair of equal and opposite electric charges or magnetic poles, forces, etc."), POODLES, and STOOPED.  After time I noted other sevens of DESPOIL / SPOILED, DEPOSIT, and PILOTED.

I'd not have tried LOOPIEST* under the show's rules (thanks to the lesson of NG 50), so my best would have been seven then.  But the safe eights are POOLSIDE and PISTOLED (American spelling of PISTOLLED, where PISTOL has an obsolete verb sense of "to shoot with a pistol").

There's a nine lurking here, though: TOPSOILED (TOPSOIL as a verb: "to cover (land) with topsoil").

My selection: LOOPIEST* / POODLES
Best: TOPSOILED


Round 2: D E T I M T B E P

I had TIDE, TIMED, and BEDTIME.

Seven is the limit, as expected; the others are TEMPTED, EMITTED, and EMPTIED.

My selection: BEDTIME


Round 3: Target 575 from 50 75 7 2 10 7

Too easy; I noted down 575 = 10*50 + 75 and 575 = 7*75 + 50 and left it at that.

My selection: 575 = 7*75 + 50


Round 4: W C O E N C R U M

I had CONE, CRONE, OUNCE, OCCUR, was unsure about COWMEN (valid), and CONCUR.

COWMEN and CONCUR are the only two sixes, and the best to be done.

My selection: CONCUR


Round 5: J G R E L A S O F

I had LARGE, LAGERS, FORAGES, LOAFERS, and GAOLERS.  After time I noted another seven of GOLFERS.

The remaining seven is SAFROLE.

My selection: FORAGES


Round 6: Target 785 from 50 4 5 9 7 4

Getting to 800 is easy enough, but I could only turn that into one away with 784 = 4*4*50 - 9 - 7.

I spent a while after time looked for a solution without success, and then checked that it was solvable.  It did turn out to be so, so I kept looking.  The target factorises as 5*157; I could not make the 157 as 3*50 + 7, but eventually considered the option of 4*50 - 43.  That turned out to be manageable, giving me 785 = (4*(50 - 9) - 7)*5.

There are two other solutions; the first is just the untweaked version of the above: 785 = (4*50 - 4*9 - 7)*5.  The other is the more interesting 785 = ((4*4 + 7)*9 - 50)*5.

My selection: 784 = 4*4*50 - 9 - 7
Best: 785 = (4*(50 - 9) - 7)*5


Round 7: K N G D F I E A U

I had KING, a dubious KINGED (valid; KING as a verb is listed as colloquial for "to king-hit"), FAKING, another dubious UNFAKED (not valid), FADING, and FANGED.  A bit after time I spotted the seven of FEUDING.

FEUDING is the only seven, and the best on offer.  There's a scattering of other sixes, of which I'll just mention KNIFED and GUINEA.

My selection: FAKING
Best: FEUDING


Round 8: Target 325 from 75 50 1 3 3 7

Another multiple of 25 presents little difficulty.  I went with 325 = (7 + 1)*50 - 75.

My selection: 325 = (7 + 1)*50 - 75


Round 9: FLUTE BUCK

I was presented this in somewhat more strange and less helpful format, but there just aren't interesting anagrams available.

My selection: BUCKETFUL (4.3s)