NG 185

The delayed new game 185 is now up.


Round 1: T I N U N N H E A

I had UNIT, UNITE, and AUNTIE.

Six looks like the limit, with the others being TANNIN (nicely found by commenter Mike) and INNATE.

My selection: AUNTIE


Round 2: D A O L E S W Z I

I had LOAD, LOADS, wondered about SODALIZE but correctly rejected it on the grounds that I was thinking of SODALITE, WIELDS, ELODIA, and ELODIAS.  Unfortunately, those last two are invalid; I was thinking of ELODEA (a type of waterweed) and misremembering the spelling.

After time I checked up on WALDOES (WALDO being another term for a remote manipulator), but the base word is not listed even if that were the correct plural form.  I noted some other sixes of IDEALS / LADIES / SAILED, AZOLES (certain chemicals), and AZIDES (certain other chemicals).

A little thought on that last pair could have got me to one of the eights here: DIAZOLES (more chemical terms!).  The other eight is an anagram of it, ably found by David in a similar mix in episode 58: SLEAZOID.

The other sevens are DIAZOLE and OZALIDS (OZALID: "a cheaply-produced negative image of a printed page used in the first stages of proofing").

My selection: [invalid -- ELODIAS]
Best: SLEAZOID


Round 3: Target 340 from 25 100 75 3 2 7

I struggled a bit with this mix, although I could see a few one-aways.  The breakthrough came when I considered working down from 375, with the offset of 35 being manageable.  In retrospect that was just using the factorisation 5*68 but I did not see it that way at the time.  The resulting solution was 340 = (3 + 2)*(75 - 7).

My selection: 340 = (3 + 2)*(75 - 7)


Round 4: G O S I P E G C E

I had PIGS, COPIES, and PIECES.

Six is the best to be done; the others are SPECIE ("coin; coined money") and POGIES (POGIE: "a vat in which oysters are left to rot before being boiled down, the pearls being recovered from the residue").

My selection: COPIES


Round 5: O S F E A C M P O

I had SOFA, CAMEOS, and COMPOSE.

The other seven is an oldie from the game: POMACES (POMACE: "the pulpy residue from apples or similar fruit after crushing and pressing, as in cider-making").

My selection: COMPOSE


Round 6: Target 777 from 100 75 50 7 8 5

I really wanted to make this as 7*111, but was not able to do so; later checking confirms that this is not a viable approach.  Switching tacks I considered making it as 775 + 2, which worked out easily enough: 777 = 8*100 - (75 - 50) + (7 - 5).

My selection: 777 = 8*100 - (75 - 50) + (7 - 5)


Round 7: A A R R S H A I R

Yuck.  I had ARRAS ("rich tapestry"), HAIRS, and an uncertain SHARIA ("the law based on the Koran, the Sunna, and Arabic tradition, upheld by Muslims"); for some reason I suspected it might be capitalised and so marked it as dubious, and forgot to revisit this assumption when deciding on my answer.  Consequently I stayed with HAIRS without contemplating SHARIA again, which was a mistake.  I would probably still have made the same decision, but I should not have done so by default (if you see what I mean).

The other six is SIRRAH.

My selection: HAIRS
Best: SHARIA


Round 8: Target  334 from 50 100 75 2 10 3

This lookes like it can be worked towards, but I found it hard to go past the option of 1002/3.  The small numbers were perfect for this and so I had 334 = (100*10 + 2)/3 as my answer.

My selection: 334 = (100*10 + 2)/3


Round 9: WING REEKS

At least, that's how I thought of the conundrum; I suppose it could have been WIN GREEKS also.  Regardless, pulling out the -ING seemed clear, and after a little thought I completed the answer of SKEWERING.

My selection: SKEWERING (3.7s)