NG 116

New game 116 is now available.


Round 1: T R D E A I T H G

I had TRADE, RATTED, RIGHTED, and TIGHTER.

Seven looks like the best on offer; the others are ATTIRED, GRITTED, and GIRTHED (GIRTH as a verb: "to girdle; encircle").

My selection: TIGHTER


Round 2: H O M L E E R R A

I had HOLE, and was hoping for a final I for HOMELIER.  As it was, the A gave a familiar ARMHOLE for seven.

The only other seven seems to be EARHOLE.  Quite a few sixes, though: HEALER, HEARER, HARMER, MORALE, ROAMER / REMORA, REAMER, REALER, AREOLE (another term for an areola), and HERMAE (plural of HERMA).

My selection: ARMHOLE


Round 3: Target 913 from 6 4 7 10 2 6

A tough-looking target; it was tempting to try and make this as 920 - 7, but I was not able to get that to work.  I started off with three away via 910 = 7*10*(6 + 4 + 6/2) and was then able to improve it to one away with 912 = 2*6*(7*10 + 6).

After time I noticed the factorisation 11*83, but this looks particularly infeasible given the shortage of odd numbers.  Later checking confirmed that the target is unreachable and 912 is the best possible.

My selection: 912 = 2*6*(7*10 + 6)


Round 4: D E B R N A E T R

I had BRED, BREAD, REBATED / BERATED, RETREAD / TREADER, and a late find of BARTERED.  I was pretty pleased to have extracted an eight from that, until I looked at the mix just after time ran out and spotted the full monty of BARTENDER.  Oh, well.

The other eights are BANTERED and BANTERER.  The other sevens are BRANDER / REBRAND, DEBATER, and TERRANE ("a geological formation or series of formations").

My selection: BARTERED
Best: BARTENDER


Round 5: M F O I S T O A R

I had MOIST, FOIST, RATIOS, and FORMATS.

The other seven is AMORIST ("a lover").  Commenter Victor did well to spot MAFIOSO ("a member or associate of the Mafia"), but unfortunately the Macquarie only lists it with a capital letter.

My selection: FORMATS


Round 6: Target 105 from 25 6 2 1 9 4

The target is 3*5*7, but more straightforward approaches are probably sensible.  I started with 105 = 25*4 + 6 - 1, then changed some of the operations to get 105 = (25 - 4)*(6 - 1).  Finally I managed to avoid the large number entirely with 105 = (4 + 2 + 1)*(9 + 6).

My selection: 105 = (4 + 2 + 1)*(9 + 6)


Round 7: T M E A P U S A C

I had TAME, TAUPE, CAMPUS, and struggled to better it -- I'd hoped the last vowel would have been another E to give AMPUTEES, and I had trouble recovering.  Something almost-familiar was nagging at me, but I was unable to identify it.  I did, however, find a seven of CAMPEST.

It looks like sevens are the best, with the others being TEACUPS (the word I was trying to see) / CUSPATE (variant form for CUSPED: "having a cusp or cusps; cusp-like").

My selection: CAMPEST


Round 8: Target 242 from 100 75 6 9 9 1

I recognised the target as 2*11*11, but making much use of that seemed difficult.  In the end I settled for one away with 241 = (9 + 1)*(100 - 75) - 9.

It took some thinking after time for me to find a working approach.  The insight that got me there was that the required offset of 8 could also be 108, and the latter is 9*12 or 6*18.  A bit of tweaking later and a solution unfolded: 242 = 6*(75 - 9 - 9) - 100.

That turns out to be the only solution.

My selection: 241 = (9 + 1)*(100 - 75) - 9  [1 off]
Best: 242 = 6*(75 - 9 - 9) - 100


Round 9: BREED ELMS

In retrospect ELM BREEDS makes a bit more sense.  In any case, the "in" here for me was the -EMBLE- fragment, and then RESEMBLED followed.

My selection: RESEMBLED (6.1s)