NG 142

New game 142 is now ready.  Apologies for the lateness, looks like it's going to be one of those weeks.


Round 1: R L M A E A I D O

I had MARL (a type of soil), REALM, ALARM, wondered about MAILER but thought I'd tried it before and it was not listed (as James Cooper unfortunately found out in episode 409), and ADMIRAL.  After time I noted another seven of DARIOLE ("a type of small, cup-shaped mould").

The other sevens are ALARMED, EARLDOM, DIORAMA, and MADEIRA.  There's also the possible MOLDIER which gets into the issue of derived forms of variant spellings again.

My selection: ADMIRAL


Round 2: G S S U U O W S E

I had SOWS, GUESS, and SOUSES (SOUSE: "to plunge into water or other liquid").

The other six is WUSSES; the other gives are SOUSE and GESSO ("gypsum, or plaster of Paris, prepared with size, for use as a ground for painting").

My selection: SOUSES


Round 3: Target 974 from 25 8 7 1 6 3

Memory of the 75-times table makes it easy enough to think of approaching this as 13*75 - 1, which is also 39*25 - 1.  I first went with the latter as 974 = (6*7 - 3)*25 - 1, and then the former as 974 = (7 + 6)*3*25 - 1.

My selection: 974 = (7 + 6)*3*25 - 1


Round 4: T S L D E A I R N

Very good letters here; I had SLED, LASTED, DILATES, TRAILED, LATRINES, STRAINED, ISLANDER, and TENDRILS.  After time I noted ENTRAILS as another eight.

So many eights here, but no nine.  The other eights are DETRAINS, RATLINES (RATLINE being a nautical term for "any of the small ropes or lines which traverse the shrouds horizontally, serving as steps for going aloft"), and TRENAILS (TRENAIL is a variant spelling of TREENAIL: "a cylindrical pin of hard word for fastening together timbers in ships, etc."; annoyingly it is only listed under TREENAIL, so I nearly though this was absent).

Bad luck to anyone trying RANDIEST here, as it is not listed.  Of course, STRAINED is the safer option on those letters.

My selection: LATRINES


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

I had ONCE, SCONCE ("a wall bracket for holding one or more candles or other lights"), and CANOES / OCEANS.

The other six here is COCOAS.

My selection: SCONCE


Round 6: Target 867 from 75 6 8 8 4 5

My first attempt was to work from either 825 or 900, although neither offset is very formable.  The former did let me get one away, though, with 868 = (6 + 5)*(75 + 4) - 8/8.  Then I switched tacks and tried dividing by 8 to find out that I wanted to multiply by something near 108.  Making 107 turned out to be pretty easy and rather fortuitously the remaining two numbers were exactly what was needed, giving me the solution 867 = 8*(75 + 8*4) + 6 + 5.

There's only one other solution to this: 867 = (75 - 8)*(8 + 5) - 4.

My selection: 867 = 8*(75 + 8*4) + 6 + 5


Round 7: N M I I K R T H E

I had MINI, THINK, and RETHINK / THINKER.  If only one of those I's had been an E then THEREMIN would have been available.

The other sevens are INHERIT and INTERIM / TERMINI.

My selection: RETHINK


Round 8: Target 619 from 2 3 1 10 10 4

Getting close with 6*10*10 seems clear, and my first instinct was to try 2*3*10*10.  That only let me get one away with 620, but before writing that down I looked at another way to make the 6 and was pleased to see that a solution would then arise: 619 = (4 + 2)*(10*10 + 3) + 1.  This turns out to be the only solution.

My selection: 619 = (4 + 2)*(10*10 + 3) + 1


Round 9: BE DAUNTED

I jumped in early with the incorrect DEBUTANTE, alas.  I duplicated the wrong consonant, which I realised as I buzzed in but could not find the correction.  In fact, I did not get it within time afterwards, either, so this conundrum defeated me twice in some sense.

My selection: [invalid -- DEBUTANTE (2.0s)]
Best: UNDEBATED