Friday 15 January 2016

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

6 comments:

I loved CTB bus conductor said...

No luck with with letters.


Globe
These
75*(9+2)=825 ( 1 off)
Teach
Podium
(75+50)*7-8+5=872
Remit
(50*2-5)*7+4=669
Captaincy

BadBeatPete said...

Round 1 - Uglier
Round 2 - Haste
Round 3 - Got 825 in 30 seconds (1 away). (9+2)*75=825
Round 4 - Loathe
Round 5 - Podium
Round 6 - (75+50)*7=875, 875-(8-5)=872
Round 7 - Tremor
Round 8 - (7+2)*75=675, 675-(50/5)=665, 665+4=669
Round 9 - Captaincy (total time: 1.0 seconds)

Mike Backhouse said...

Slow on the numbers today. 30 seconds is not very long! Wish I'd seen PODIUM.

BULGIER
HEATS
Senaka and Pete's way (1 off)
CHALET
PUMP
Senaka and Pete's way except I went over time
OTTER
Pete's way but bit over time
CAPTAINCY (67s)

Geoff Bailey said...

Some good results here. Pete, I'm afraid you've used a second R in round 7 -- TREMOR is thus not valid. Great speed on the conundrum!

Sam G said...

1. ROUBLE
2. HASTEN
3. one off: 825 = (9+2)*75
4. CHALET
5. PODIUM
6. 872 = (75+50)*7 - 8 + 5
7. x OMITTER
8. 669 = (7+2)*75 - 50/5 + 4
9. X CAPTAINCY ~8s, but went in earlier with INCAPACITY.

BadBeatPete said...

Just realised the error. Those phantom letters :)