NG 210

New game 210 is now ready.


Round 1: H N N N K B A I E

I had BANK, INANE, and HANKIE.

The other six is NANKIN, a variant spelling of NANKEEN ("a firm, durable, yellow or buff fabric, made originally from a natural-coloured Chinese cotton but now from other cotton and dyed"; it is also a type of porcelain).

The other five is HENNA.

My selection: HANKIE


Round 2: B T E A S U T F R

I had BEAT, BEAST, STATUE, and STATURE.  I amused myself with the ideas of FURBEAST or BEASTFUR, but not seriously.  This was a case where I might have got in trouble if listening to the letters without looking at them, as an S instead of the F would yield SUBSTRATE for nine.

After time I noted BATTERS and BUTTERS as other sevens.

Seven is the best to be done -- the Macquarie does not list ABUTTERS -- with the other being BATTUES (BATTUE: "indiscriminate slaughter of defenceless or unresisting crowds").

My selection: STATURE


Round 3: Target 118 from 25 3 9 1 4 7

The standard method was a clear favourite here as the offset of 7 is already present.  It was the work of a few moments to get a solution in the form of 118 = (4 + 1)*25 - 7.  Then I turned, as I often do, to the task of making it from small numbers alone and was able to use the factorisation 2*59 to find this solution: 118 = (9*7 - 4)*(3 - 1).

My selection: 118 = (9*7 - 4)*(3 - 1)


Round 4: S D O I R L E M E

I had ROIDS, LORIS, SOLDIER, RESILED (RESILE: "to spring back; rebound"), MOILERS, wondered about EMEROIDS (I wasn't sure where I came up with this from, but it is in the Scrabble word list so I must have seen it there often enough; I gather it is a variant form of HAEMORRHOIDS, but not one listed in the Macquarie), speculated about DEMEROLS, and happily found MELODIES as a safe eight.  Unfortunately I did not have enough time remaining to get MELODISER down.

MELODISER is the only nine, unsurprisingly.  The other eights are MELODISE and REMODELS / MORSELED (MORSEL as a verb: "to distribute in or divide into tiny portions"; the Macquarie does not list an explicit past tense so it must be assumed to be MORSELED rather than MORSELLED), and arguably MODELERS (not explicitly listed, and I've spoken before about the issue with derived forms where variations are around).

My selection: MELODIES
Best: MELODISER


Round 5: A I O S P C H C D

I had SOAP, ASPIC, and just like NG 207 had to resort to CAPSID ("the coating of a virus particle, consisting of one or a few proteins whose molecules are arranged in a highly ordered fashion") for better.  After time I noted that APHIDS was a more findable six.

There are no other sixes, not any sevens.  But there is an eight!  It is SCAPHOID ("boat-shaped", and also the name for a couple of different bones).

My selection: CAPSID
Best: SCAPHOID


Round 6: Target 454 from 50 100 2 10 7 5

I had a bit of wasted time at the start as I could not see a handy way to make a 4.  I could see how to get to 450 using either the 5 or the 7, and considering the task of making 4 from the other small numbers made things considerably simpler.  It worked out with the second of these, giving me the solution 454 = 7*50 + 100 + 2 + 10/5.

Then I noticed that I could make a 4 as 2*7 - 10, which also left tweaking options open.  That allowed me to save a number with 454 = 7*(50 + 2) + 100 - 10.

My selection: 454 = 7*(50 + 2) + 100 - 10


Round 7: P R M E I U D T T

I had PERM, PRIME, UMPIRE, PRIMED, an uncertain DUMPIER (valid), TRUMPET, and TRUMPED.  After time I noted UMPIRED as another seven (and a safer anagram of DUMPIER).  If only that last T had been an H then TRIUMPHED would have been available.

Seven appears to be the best on offer; the others are IMPUTED, IMPUTER, PUTTIED (PUTTY as a verb: "to secure, cover, etc., with putty"), and PUTTIER ("someone who putties, as a glazier").

My selection: TRUMPET


Round 8: Target 502 from 75 50 4 9 6 9

My first thought about getting close was to get to 525 with 9*50 + 75.  The offset is 23 which is a little awkward, but I realised that this was 27 - 4 and a tweak got me home: 502 = 9*(50 - (9 - 6)) + 75 + 4.  A bit later I realised that 500 is 4*125 and another tweak yielded a solution: 502 = 4*(75 + 50 - 9/9) + 6.

My selection: 502 = 9*(50 - (9 - 6)) + 75 + 4


Round 9: POND PAGED

I didn't solve this, although admittedly I was skipping through potential conundrums moderately fast at this point.  I like to think I'd have had a chance if I'd devoted serious attention to it, particularly since I recall being amused to see it listed in the dictionary before, but it is admittedly still unlikely that I would have done so.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: DOGNAPPED