NG 718

New game 718 is now available.

The re-run is episode 431; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: A E W H U L R E G

I had WHALE, WHALER, was dubious about REGULAE (not sure where I picked that up from; it's not in the Macquarie, but it did show up in the Scrabble list), HAULER, HEALER, and LAUGHER.

The other seven is LEAGUER ("to besiege").  LEGWEAR is not listed.

My selection: LAUGHER


Round 2: O N P M I R A S D

I had PION, PRION, RAMPION, RAMPIONS, and PONIARDS.  After time I confirmed that MISPARDON was not a word.

Those are the only eights; the other sevens are PONIARD / PADRONI (plural of PADRONE: "a master, as of a vessel"), PARDONS, INROADS / ORDAINS, SOPRANI / PARISON, DOMAINS / DAIMONS (DAIMON being a variant spelling of DAEMON) / MADISON (a type of cycling race), RANDOMS (RANDOM as a noun being colloquial for "an unknown person or outsider"), NIMRODS (NIMROD: "someone expert in or devoted to hunting"), and SPAROID ("resembling or related to the Sparidae, a family of deep-bodied marine fishes, as the Australian snapper and bream").

My selection: RAMPIONS


Round 3: Target 616 from 100 9 3 4 2 6

Starting with 6*100 works well enough, giving 616 = 6*100 + 9 + 4 + 3.  I then saved a number with 616 = 6*(100 + 2) + 4.  After time I considered the factorisation 8*77 to find a more complicated option of 616 = (6 + 2)*(100 - 3*9 + 4).

My selection: 616 = 6*(100 + 2) + 4


Round 4: R F P K C E I S I

I had PECK, PICKER, and PICKERS.

Seven is the best to be done, with the others being PICKIER, SPICIER, and SPIKIER*.

My selection: PICKERS


Round 5: L I E B T A I C B

I had BILE, TABLE, BIBLE, CABLET (a small cable, not a small cab), and ELICIT.

The sevens here are CITABLE and CILIATE (a type of protozoan).

My selection: ELICIT
Best: CITABLE


Round 6: Target 287 from 100 25 10 2 8 8

The target is 7*41, but that seems difficult to use.  In fact, with only one odd number an odd target is often difficult, and this seems like a good example.  The obvious approaches are either 262 + 25 or 312 - 25, but I was not able to get either to work.  Fortunately I spotted another option for getting an odd number via 10/2, and that yielded the 13 I needed to give 287 = 8*25 + 100 - 8 - 10/2.

A variation on that idea is 287 = (8*(100 - 25) - 10)/2 - 8.  There are two other solutions, one for each of the approaches I could not make work.  They are 287 = (8 + 8)*10 + 100 + 2 + 25 and 287 = (100/2 - 10)*8 - 8 - 25.

My selection: 287 = 8*25 + 100 - 8 - 10/2


Round 7: O H E D M M C F U

I had HOED, HUMMED, and rejected CHUMMED and CHEFDOM.  Alas, CHUMMED is valid, as I considered it might be; I was familiar with CHUM as a noun for "chopped fish, lobsters, etc., thrown overboard to attract fish, as in deep sea fishing", but was less certain that there was an associated verb sense.  There is, so I missed my chance at the seven.  (CHEFDOM is not valid, although it is in the Scrabble list.)

The other seven is MOUCHED (MOUCH being a variant spelling of MOOCH).

My selection: HUMMED
Best: CHUMMED


Round 8: Target 308 from 25 50 100 4 2 4

The offset of 8 is easy to come by, and there are many ways to proceed; I went with 308 = 4*(50 + 25 + 2).

My selection: 308 = 4*(50 + 25 + 2).


Round 9: FIR CUD ICE

Here it proved useful to extend the -ED ending to -IFIED, and thus CRUCIFIED.

My selection: CRUCIFIED (7.0s)