NG 146

New game 146 is now available.


Round 1: I A E H H M E R S

I had HAIR, HAREMS (I spotted HAREEMS, but know from past checks that the Macquarie does not allow this variant spelling), and dubious attempts of HAREMISH (extending to HAREEMISH), MESHIER, and MASHIER.  Deciding, rightly, that they were all too dodgy I had to stay with HAREMS.

There are some sevens, though: MISHEAR and SEAMIER / SERIEMA (one of two types of birds).

My selection: HAREMS
Best: MISHEAR


Round 2: O A T L C E E D D

I had COAT, wondered about COATL (not valid), COATED, CLEATED, and LOCATED.  DELOCATED was a non-starter, so seven was the limit.

The other sevens are DELATED (DELATE: "to inform against; denounce") and CLADODE ("a flattened stem functioning as a leaf").

My selection: LOCATED


Round 3: Target 321 from 25 50 75 10 10 5

The standard method would suggest making this as 325 - 4, although the factorisation 3*107 is also worth a look.  Unfortunately it does not seem possible to make both the 3 and the 107 without reusing a number, and finding a 4 is difficult.  I wrote down a fallback 320 = 5*75 - 50 - 25 + 10 + 10 and pondered further.  Then I realised that the 4 could be formed after all and found the solution of 321 = 5*75 - 50 - (10*10)/25.  The same technique as if we had 100, but this time we had to make that 100.  Phew!

There's a minor variant solution of 321 = 5*50 + 75 - (10*10)/25, and each of those has another variant form: 321 = (25*75 - 10 - 10)/5 - 50 and 321 = (25*50 - 10 - 10)/5 + 75.  Those are the only four solutions.

My selection: 321 = 5*75 - 50 - (10*10)/25


Round 4: O U K R L U T A O

Gah, a lousy mix.  If one of those U's had been yet another O then it could have been redeemed with OUTLOOK, but as it was I was limited to four-letter words: LOUR, AUTO, LARK, TALK, and LOOK.

There do turn out to be some fives: ULTRA, KRAUT (a derogatory colloquialism for a German) / KURTA ("a loose-fitting shirt worn by South Asian women with a salwar or churidar and by men with a pyjama"), and TALUK ("[in India] (formerly) a hereditary estate").

But there is even a six!  The main entry is capitalised but the lower case form is considered acceptable for this meaning: KULTUR ("a civilisation characteristic of a time or a people").

My selection: TALK
Best: KULTUR


Round 5: A E A R N F A F Y

I had AREA, EARN, ARENA, and AFFRAY.

I was pretty happy about AFFRAY -- the only other six seems to be FRAENA (plural of FRAENUM: "a small fold of membrane which checks or restrains the motion of a part, as the one which binds down the underside of the tongue") -- but commenter Victor went one better by finding FANFARE in this set.  Well done, Victor!

My selection: AFFRAY
Best: FANFARE


Round 6: Target 745 from 50 100 25 9 6 8

Another tough numbers round, or so it felt, with an offset of 5 being hard to come by.  The nearby 744 is much easier and I wrote down the fallback answer of 744 = 8*100 - 50 - 6.  That was the best I could manage within time, but afterwards I thought a bit more carefully about the offset of 55 and found the right tweak to get there: 745 = 8*(100 - 6) - (9 - 50/25).

There's a variation of that solution that also works: 745 = 8*(100 - 6 - 50/25) + 9, and another variant of that which swaps the 8 and 6 + 50/25.  The only other solution is the rather unlikely 745 = (50 + 8)*(9 + 6) - 100 - 25.

My selection: 744 = 8*100 - 50 - 6  [1 off]
Best: 745 = 8*(100 - 6) - (9 - 50/25)


Round 7: U A O N D R R I L

I had AROUND and DURIAN.  I had hoped that the last consonant would be an S for DINOSAUR but no such luck.  After time I noted UNLOAD as another six, and observed ARDUINO and ANDÚRIL were available although clearly neither is valid.

There are some sevens, though: ORDINAL, DIURNAL, and NODULAR.

My selection: AROUND
Best: ORDINAL


Round 8: Target 282 from 50 75 25 10 8 10

The offset of 18 from 300 was tempting given that it could be made pretty easily, and I soon had a solution in the shape of 282 = 10*25 + 50 - 10 - 8.  I played around with other approaches (such as attempting to make it as 10*29 - 8) but was not able to make them work.

My selection: 282 = 10*25 + 50 - 10 - 8


Round 9: AIRED SLUR

I was lost on this one; simply couldn't solve it.  I've heard of the word, but the R-pattern of RURALISED was unexpected.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: RURALISED