NG 102

New game 102 is now available.


Round 1: O E A F B C N S S

I had FACE, BEACON, BEACONS, hoped for a final R for BACONERS but no such luck, amused myself with SNOBFACES, and then noted CONFESS as another seven.

The remaining seven is CONFABS.

My selection: BEACONS


Round 2: T L O E M O R S E

I had MOTEL, TREMOLO ("a tremulous or vibrating effect produced on certain instruments and in the human voice, as to express emotion"), wondered about TREMOLOS (which is valid; I was just uncertain because I was thinking that TREMOLO was an adjective, although with time to think I would have sorted that out), and then avoided that confusion by finding MOLESTER for eight.  After time I noted OMELETS as another seven that I'd seen within time.

MOLESTER and TREMOLOS are the only eights; the other sevens are MOOTERS (MOOTER being the agent noun derived from MOOT: "to bring forward (any point, subject, project, etc.) for discussion"), MELTERS / SMELTER, METEORS / REMOTES, and LOOTERS / TOOLERS / RETOOLS / ROOTLES (ROOTLE: "to root or grub; rummage").  There's also MOLTERS, which would require derived forms of variant spellings to propagate (both MOULTER and MOLT are listed, but not MOLTER specifically).

My selection: MOLESTER


Round 3: Target 428 from 100 25 50 75 2 3

The target is 4*107, but the standard method looks much more the way to go.  A little experimentation shows that there are several solutions; I started with a prosaic 428 = 2*(100 + 75 + 50) - 25 + 3 and then wrote down a second approach of 428 = (75 - 50)*25 - 2*100 + 3.

My selection: 428 = 2*(100 + 75 + 50) - 25 + 3


Round 4: T I G I R L A D R

I had GRIT, GILT, GLAIR ("the white of an egg"; it also has a verb sense), TRAIL / TRIAL, RIGID, and DIGITAL.  I also observed DIRTGIRL but correctly assumed that the Macquarie would not have this.

DIGITAL is the only seven, and there don't seem to be any sixes.  I'll just mention a couple of the other fives: TRIAD and TIDAL.

My selection: DIGITAL


Round 5: O E A P Y S N F C

I had SOAPY, PEONY, an uncertain SYNCOPE (I could not recall where I thought I had encountered this, and my error with BOHICAS in NG 100 still smarts somewhat), FANCY, and CANOPY.  After time I noted down OCEANS / CANOES and PECANS as other sixes.

SYNCOPE kept feeling right, though, so I decided to declare it.  It turns out to be valid, meaning "Phonetics the contraction of a word by omitting one or more sounds from the middle, as in the reduction of never to ne'er".  Phew!

That's the only seven; the other sixes are SPACEY, PONCES, CAPONS, CONEYS (CONEY being a variant spelling of CONY: "a rabbit"), and PAEONS (PAEON: "a metrical foot of four syllables, one long (in any position) and three short").

My selection: SYNCOPE


Round 6: Target 517 from 100 25 10 9 1 9

Those small numbers are not good for manouevring, and I really struggled with this mix.  I spent far too long trying to get 525 - (9 - 1), which was particularly tempting as 525 is 7*75.  It just wasn't working out, though, and eventually I switched tacks and found my way to three off the target with 520 = (9 - 1)*(100 - 25 - 10).

I was unable to better that after time, until computer searching showed that one off was achievable (the actual target not being reachable) with one of the options being 525 - 9.  I was close in my intended approach, then, but I needed that surety before I could find the way to do it: 516 = ((100 - 1)/9 + 10)*25 - 9.  Difficult, but findable if in the right frame of mind.

More annoyingly, there's a modification of my actual answer that gets two closer: 518 = (9 - 1)*(100 - 25 - 9) - 10.  That's the kind of thing I usually look for, but in this case I did not have time and then spent the efforts afterwards on different approaches.  If only I had seen this option I could have had a maximal game.

There's only one other way to get one away, the oddball 516 = (9*9 - 25)*(10 + 1) - 100.

My selection: 520 = (9 - 1)*(100 - 25 - 10)  [3 off]
Best: 518 = (9 - 1)*(100 - 25 - 9) - 10  [1 off]


Round 7: E E O I R N H D O

I had IRON and HEROINE.  A shame that the last two letters added nothing to that.

The other sevens are INHERED (INHERE: "to exist permanently and inseparably, as a quality, attribute, or element"), HONOREE, and HONORED.

My selection: HEROINE


Round 8: Target 800 from 50 9 8 1 5 2

An easy final numbers round; I wrote down the obvious 800 = 2*8*50, then avoided the large number with 800 = 8*(9 + 1)*2*5.  Then I spotted a somewhat circuitous approach that greatly appealed to me in its complication: 800 = (8 + 9)*(50 - 5 + 2) + 1.

My selection: 800 = (8 + 9)*(50 - 5 + 2) + 1


Round 9: WIDE HEATH

The HEAD fragment stood out for me, and although I hesitated a little it seemed clear that WHITEHEAD was the answer.  Blackheads were familiar as a teenager but whiteheads somewhat less so, at least as a term: "a pimple that has formed a head of pus".

My selection: WHITEHEAD (3.2s)