NG 105

New game 105 is now available; apologies for the delay, I went out for the evening and forgot to make it available first.


Round 1: S L R A U T M O T

I had SLUR, TRAMS, and MORTALS, rejecting MALTRUST and MUTATORS along the way.  After time I finally bothered to look at OUT- (I could have sworn I did so early on, but I must not have) and immediately saw OUTSMART for eight and OUTLAST as another seven.

The other eight is MULATTOS (MULATTOES is also an acceptable plural form).  The other sevens are MULATTO and STRATUM.

My selection: MORTALS
Best: OUTSMART


Round 2: D D D U B A E M F

I had BAUD, DAUBED, and BUDDED.  I also saw DUMBED, but was pretty sure this would only be part of the phrase DUMBED DOWN (and hence invalid); this turned out to be the case.

Those look like the only sixes, and the best to be done.

My selection: DAUBED


Round 3: Target 530 from 50 75 7 4 4 3

The target is so close to 7*75 that it was hard to go past it as a starting position, leading to the solution 530 = 7*75 + 4 + 4 - 3.  There's a few other solutions, but that is definitely the easiest.

My selection: 530 = 7*75 + 4 + 4 - 3


Round 4: N F O A G D N I S

I had FANG, GONAD, FADING, and SANDING.

The other sevens are FADINGS, GANOIDS (GANOID being any fish of a certain group), and FANIONS (FANION: "a small flag used to mark surveying stations").

My selection: SANDING


Round 5: S S R R O E E G I

I had ROSES, GROSSER, and REGRESS.

Again seven was the best to be done; the others are SOIREES (SOIREE: "an evening party or social gathering, often for a particular purpose), ORRISES (an ORRIS being any of a certain type of iris, in the plant sense), and SERRIES (SERRY: "to force to crowd closely together").

My selection: GROSSER


Round 6: Target 167 from 50 75 100 25 3 10

My first thought was that the target was 501/3, and that was a little too tempting to ignore.  Fortunately it turned out to be manageable and I went with 167 = (50*10 + (75 + 25)/100)/3.  Then I looked at more prosaic options and found 167 = 100 + 75 - 10 + 50/25.  Oh, well. *chuckles*

My selection: 167 = (50*10 + (75 + 25)/100)/3


Round 7: C H T A A E N E S

I had CHAT, TEACH, a dubious HECTANES, CHASTEN, TEACHES, and TENCHES.  I correctly rejected HECTANES as the Macquarie was not likely to list it -- it would be a rather unlikely alkane with a hundred carbon atoms.  It was close to the valid HEPTANES, though, which is probably why I thought of it.

After time I noted other sevens of ETHANES, ESCHEAT ("(formerly) the reversion of land to the feudal lord or the Crown in the absence of heirs of the owner"), and CATENAE (plural of CATENA: "a chain or connected series [...]").

The remaining sevens are TENACES (a certain combination of cards in bridge and similar games) / CETANES (CETANE: "a colourless, liquid, alkane [...] found in petroleum; hexadecane"), CASEATE ("to undergo caseous degeneration; become like cheese in consistency and appearance"), ACHENES (ACHENE: "a small, dry, hard, one-seeded, indehiscent fruit") / ENCHASE ("to place (gems) in an ornamental setting"), and CHAETAE (plural of CHAETA: "a bristle or seta, especially in annelid worms").

My selection: CHASTEN


Round 8: Target 151 from 50 100 25 75 2 6

Getting to 150 is clearly easy, and there's various ways to make the remaining 1.  I amused myself by starting off with three 150's: 150 = 100 + 50, 150 = 2*75, and 150 = 6*25.  Then I solved it as 151 = 150 + 150/150.  I'd have definitely declared a solution this way on the show for the amusement value.

I also noted that a decent from 175 was feasible, finding the alternative solution 151 = 100 + 75 - 2*6*50/25.

My selection: 151 = 100 + 50 + (25*6)/(2*75)


Round 9: RUINS A PIG

In this case the -ING ending is handy, although I took a while to unscramble the rest to find UPRAISING.

My selection: UPRAISING (4.9s)