NG 165

New game 165 is really available now; apologies for only getting the automatic post to work, not the automatic release of the game itself.


Round 1: T E D E C N O E C

I had CEDE, DECENT, and CONCEDE.  I kept getting distracted by the not-quite-there CONNECTED; note that staying with three vowels would have brought in an R and allowed CONCRETED.  (On the other hand, if that last E had been an I instead then CONCEITED would have been the nine.)

That looks like the only seven; the other sixes are DOCENT, DENOTE, ENCODE, and DECOCT ("to boil (a medicinal substance, etc.) in water, etc.; to extract the essence or principles").  As an aside, DECOCT is the only word formed from placing two three-letter month abbreviations next to each other.

My selection: CONCEDE


Round 2: R R I U M U C T U

I had CURIUM.  That was it, although I was hoping for a final E to allow TURMERIC.

Aside from CURIUM the best alternatives seem to be four-letter words, TRIM being perhaps the most common.

My selection: CURIUM


Round 3: Target 242 from 25 100 2 8 3 10

Oh, dear, I very much took the scenic route on this one.  I recognised the target as twice the square of 11, so it was tempting to form 8 + 3 = 11 or 25 - 3 = 22, but I was not then able to get the rest to work.  Eventually I switched tacks to exploit the factor of 2 with 242 = 2*(100 + 10 + 8 + 3).  A tiny bit later I spotted how to make a 45 and found the alternative solution 242 = 8*25 + (100 - 10)/3 - 3.

After time I saw that avoiding the large numbers was pretty straightforward with 242 = 3*8*10 + 2.  And then while writing this up I saw the even more obvious approach from the standard method: 242 = 10*25 - 8.  I really, really overcomplicated this!

My selection: 242 = 2*(100 + 10 + 8 + 3)


Round 4: T S S O A O B P E

I had TOSS, OATS, and BOASTS / SABOTS.  I amused myself by wondering if SEA LEGS ("the ability to walk with steadiness or ease on a rolling ship") might be found in SEABOOTS, but never seriously, of course.

The seven here is SAPOTES (SAPOTE being a type of tree).

My selection: BOASTS
Best: SAPOTES


Round 5: D E P N A I R S O

I had PEND, PANED, PAINED, SPRAINED, and PONIARDS.

Great letters, but no nine that I'm aware of.  The other eights are PARODIES / DIASPORE ("a natural hydrated aluminium oxide [...] used as a refractory or an abrasive"), OPERANDS / PANDORES (PANDORE being a variant form of the musical instrument BANDORE), and ANEROIDS.

My selection: SPRAINED


Round 6: Target 216 from 25 50 100 3 5 10

I flailed at first, thinking I might have to limit myself to one away with 215 = 3*(50 + 25) - 10.  Then I considered how to use the large numbers more effectively to make small ones and was happy to get a solution: 216 = (50/25)*(100 + 5 + 3).

My selection: 216 = (50/25)*(100 + 5 + 3)


Round 7: D A E S M O T E S

I had MADE, ATOMS, and DEMOTES.  No DOMESEATS here.

Seven is likely the best to be done; the others are STEAMED, SEDATES, and arguably DEMOSES (DEMOS: "the people or commons of an ancient Greek state").

My selection: DEMOTES


Round 8: Target 325 from 25 75 50 1 1 8

That pair of 1's looked troubling, but then the target was a low multiple of 25 and life was easy; I went with 325 = 8*50 - 75.

My selection: 325 = 8*50 - 75


Round 9: TREE XYLEM

This conundrum is perhaps a roundabout way of saying "wood", which is perhaps the best known kind of xylem.  Anyway, with EX- and -LY around it's not that difficult to find EXTREMELY in the mix.

My selection: EXTREMELY (2.7s)