NG 755

New game 755 is now available.

The re-run is episode 18; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: G L B E R U I E O

I had BULGE, BUGLER, was uncertain about BULGIER*, ROUBLE, and BROGUE.

The sevens here are OBLIGER, OBLIGEE, and BEGUILE.  That last leads to the best answer, the eight of BEGUILER.

My selection: BROGUE
Best: BEGUILER


Round 2: A Z S N E E T H N

I had SANE, ANTES, ETHANE, ETHANES, and amused myself with ZENNEST.

The safe seven (particularly if one likes ETHANES) is NEATENS.

My selection: ETHANES


Round 3: Target 826 from 75 50 25 2 9 6

A tough one!  The best I could do was one away with 825 = (9 + 2)*75.

It is difficult, but there are two solutions.  The more findable one is a descent from 900; the offset is 74, which is 50 + 24, or 50 + 2*9 + 6.  Tweaking turns that into a solution of 826 = 9*(75 + 25 - 2) - 50 - 6.  The other solution is 832 - 6 with 826 = (25 - 9)*(50 + 2) - 6.

My selection: 825 = (9 + 2)*75  [1 off]
Best: 826 = (25 - 9)*(50 + 2) - 6


Round 4: G T J O A L E H C

I had GOAT, GLOAT, LOCATE, LOATHE, CLOTHE, and CHOLATE.  Unfortunately, that last is not valid.

Six is the best to be done.  The others are CHALET / THECAL (adjective derived from THECA: "a case or receptacle"), GELATO / LEGATO (a musical direction), GOTCHA, and CAJOLE.

My selection: [invalid -- CHOLATE]
Best: LOCATE


Round 5: I T U P M O D A P

I had OPIUM, DATUM, rightly rejected OUTPAID, PODIUM, and DIATOM.

The seven here is POPADUM.  The other sixes are UTOPIA and OPTIMA / MATIPO (a type of tree).

My selection: PODIUM
Best: POPADUM


Round 6: Target 872 from 75 50 7 5 7 8

The target is 8*109, but I was not able to make that work.  But it is near my much-liked 875, and it was a short step to 872 = 7*(75 + 50) - (8 - 5).

There is another solution that makes the final 3 slightly differently: 872 = 7*(75 + 50) - (8 + 7)/5.  There's one other trivial modification of the solution I had: 872 = 7*75 + 7*50 - (8 - 5).  And the last solution does manage to make this as 8*109: 872 = (7*(7 + 5) - 50 + 75)*8.

My selection: 872 = 7*(75 + 50) - (8 - 5)


Round 7: I M T R E T O I Q

I had TRIM, TIMER / MITRE, METRO, OTTER, and MOIRE.  I just could not find longer, but afterwards I saw ROTTIE, a colloquial term for a rottweiler.

OMITTER is not in the Macquarie, so that leaves ROTTIE as the best to be done and the only six.

My selection: OTTER
Best: ROTTIE


Round 8: Target 669 from 75 50 2 7 4 5

The target is near 9*75, but I overlooked 669 = (7 + 2)*75 - 50/5 + 4.  Instead, I looked at working down from 700; the offset is 31, which is 5*7 - 4.  A tweak finished it off: 669 = 7*(2*50 - 5) + 4.

Afterwards I thought again about 675 - 6; putting aside the 4 and 2 to make that 6 then led to an answer of 669 = (7 + 5)*50 + 75 - 4 - 2.

My selection: 669 = 7*(2*50 - 5) + 4


Round 9: ICY CATNAP

The -ITY option is a red herring, but success comes from -ANCY.

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