NG 791

New game 791 is now available.  Apologies for the lateness of this one!

The re-run is episode 54; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: E A O S B H I E X

I had BASE, an uncertain OBEAHS (OBEAH: variant spelling of OBI in the sense of "a kind of sorcery practised by some of the peoples of Africa, the West Indies, etc."), BOXES, OBESE, rightly rejected BOXISH, and was happy to spot HOAXES to avoid the question of OBEAHS.

Six turns out to be the limit, with the others being IBEXES, BOHEAS (BOHEA: "a type of black tea, regarded as fine quality"), and HEXOSE ("any of a class of sugars containing six carbon atoms, as glucose and fructose").

My selection: HOAXES


Round 2: O R A A T B E S G

I had TARO, ABORT, BORATE, BORATES / BOASTER / SORBATE, ABROGATE ("to abolish summarily; annul by an authoritative act; repeal"), and ABROGATES.

The other eight here is SABOTAGE.  The other sevens are ABREAST / ABATERS, ABATORS (ABATOR being a legal term), BOATERS, RATBAGS, STORAGE / ORGEATS (ORGEAT: "a syrup or drink made from almonds (originally from barley), sugar, and a water prepared from orange flowers") / TOERAGS,  BORAGES (BORAGE being a type of plant), and AGAROSE (adjective derived from AGAR).  Note that both TEA BAGS and TEAR GAS are two-word terms.

My selection: ABROGATES


Round 3: Target 333 from 75 4 4 5 10 1

I recognised the target as 9*37, and the 37 could be (75 - 1)/2; sadly, I could not make both the 9 and the 2 with the remaining numbers.  For a moment I thought I could do 18*74/4, but again it seems just short of working.  So instead I looked at working up from 4*75 = 300 with the 4 available for tweaking.  The offset of 33 is 4*8 + 1 (or 4*7 + 5), and I managed to make that work with 333 = 4*(75 + 4*10/5) + 1.

My selection: 333 = 4*(75 + 4*10/5) + 1


Round 4: C N S O A N M E R

I had CONS, CANONS, CANOES, and was very much hoping for the final R.  Happily it arrived and gave me ROMANCES.  After time I noted some sevens of ROMANCE and MACRONS.

The other eight is MONERANS (MONERAN: "Biology in the five kingdom classification system, a member of the genus Monera, typically reproducing by asexual budding or fission and gaining nutrition by absorption, photosynthesis or chemosynthesis").

The other sevens are MONERAN, MANNERS, MOANERS / OARSMEN, CORNEAS / COARSEN, SCREAMO ("a music genre of the early 1990s, derived from emo and hardcore punk"), SCANNER / CANNERS, SONANCE (an obsolete term for "a sound; a tune") / ANCONES (plural of ANCON: "Architecture any projection, as a console, suppoting a cornice or the like"), and MANNOSE (a type of sugar).

My selection: ROMANCES


Round 5: U D L C O I P R T

I had CLOUD / COULD, PRODUCT, kept getting distracted by DUPLICATOR, and CULPRIT.

Seven is the best to be done, and PRODUCT and CULPRIT are the only ones.  The sixes are PUTRID, TRIPOD / TORPID, and TROPIC.

My selection: CULPRIT


Round 6: Target 157 from 75 50 100 3 10 10

Not much to say here; I went with the fairly obvious 157 = 100 + 50 + 10 - 3.

My selection: 157 = 100 + 50 + 10 - 3


Round 7: A O C N R E R I K

I had ACORN, CORNER, and CRANKIER.  After time I checked up on CRANKER; it is not valid as a noun, but of course CRANK is an adjective so the single-syllable rule kicks in to make CRANKER valid.

The other eight is CROAKIER*.  The other sevens are CARRION, CORNIER, ROCKIER / CORKIER*, CROAKERS, CRONKER (CRONK: "dishonest; not genuine; sub-standard"), and NARKIER*.

My selection: CRANKIER


Round 8: Target 107 from 50 100 6 2 8 1

A disappointingly trivial target; I went with 107 = 100 + 8 - 1.

My selection: 107 = 100 + 8 - 1


Round 9: CHILD DAYS

The -LY ending seemed clear, and once I stopped pairing the H with the C and turned to -ISH the answer was apparent.  So that nicely rounds out a maximal game, yay!

My selection: CADDISHLY (5.7s)