NG 226

New game 226 is now available.


Round 1: B T I O N D E E D

I had INTO, wondered about DITONE (not valid), EBONITE (another name for the hard rubber vulcanite), DENOTED, and considering the OB- fragment got me to OBEDIENT for eight.

The other eight here is INDEBTED.  The other sevens are DEBITED / BETIDED and DENTOID ("like a tooth").

I've mentioned the lack before, but I'm still disappointed that DEBONED is not listed.

My selection: OBEDIENT


Round 2: E I M L T A A R W

I had LIME, MALATE ("a salt or ester of malic acid", WAITER, contemplated MALTIER but was pretty sure this had come up before and it was not valid (this turns out to be a collect recollection), amused myself with the idea of WATERMAIL as a counterpart to airmail, TAMALE, and a late spot of MATERIAL that saved me from risking MALTIER anyway.

MATERIAL looks like the only eight; the sevens are WARTIME and MARTIAL / MARITAL.

My selection: MATERIAL


Round 3: Target 667 from 50 75 8 1 3 4

The standard method is definitely tempting, as the offset of 8 is at hand without further effort.  The nearby multiple of 25 is 675, and so I wanted a 9.  That was manageable, and the solution was 667 = 3*(4 - 1)*75 - 8.  Then I considered using the 50 also and found the alternative solution 667 = 3*4*50 + 75 - 8.

My selection: 667 = 3*(4 - 1)*75 - 8


Round 4: I T A N S M E T L

I had ANTI, STAIN, MATINS, a dubious TETANISM (not valid, although TETANISE is), MANLIEST, and then pondered but rejected (correctly) LAMENTIST and LATENTISM.

I was lucky that I was not quite fast enough here, as a short while after time I saw MENTALIST for nine.  I was kicking myself over that, particularly after noting LAMENTIST, and then it turns out not to be listed in the Macquarie after all (although MENTALISM is, albeit with a different sense than I was thinking of).

Eight seems to be the limit; the others are AILMENTS / ALIMENTS (ALIMENT being marked as obsolete: "that which nourishes; nutriment; food"), MANTLETS (MANTLET being a variant form of MANTELET: "Military any of various bulletproof shelters or screens"), and the mineral SMALTITE.

My selection: MANLIEST


Round 5: D A E R S M U K O

I had READ, READS, AMUSED, SMOKED, and AROUSED.

The other sevens are DEMARKS and RADOMES (RADOME: "a domed cover over an aerial system designed to allow the free passage of radio waves").

But there is an eight here: DARKSOME ("Poetic dark; darkish").

My selection: AROUSED
Best: DARKSOME


Round 6: Target 423 from 25 75 3 6 1 8

I observed that the target was divisible by 9, and the cofactor is 47.  It was a short step from those observations to a solution of 423 = (8 + 1)*(75 - 25 - 3).  Then I contemplated it as 450 - 27 and found an alternative of 423 = 6*75 - 3*(8 + 1).

A little after time it occurred to me that the 47 could also be made as 6*8 - 1, and hence another solution of 423 = (6*8 - 1)*3*75/25.

My selection: 423 = (8 + 1)*(75 - 25 - 3)


Round 7: F A I T S E R D B

I had FAST, FATES, FASTER, and ASTRIDE.  It seemed that longer should surely be there but I could not see it within time.  Inevitably, a little after time I saw it: TRIBADES (TRIBADE more or less meaning "lesbian").

That does appear to be the only eight, and there are a lot of other sevens: TRIBADE, FAIREST, STAIDER / TIRADES / DISRATE ("to reduce to a lower rating, as a petty officer, or a non-commissioned officer of marines; degrade") / DIASTER ("a stage in mitosis at which the chromosomes, after their division and separation, are grouped near the poles of the spindle"), BRAISED / SIDEBAR / SEABIRD / ABIDERS / DARBIES (a prison colloquialism for handcuffs), STRAFED, FIBSTER, and BAITERS / BARITES (BARITE being listed as another term for the mineral BARYTES) / TERBIAS (probably; TERBIA is a particular oxide of terbium), BESTRID (one past tense of BESTRIDE).

My selection: ASTRIDE
Best: TRIBADES


Round 8: Target 588 from 100 75 50 6 1 10

A tough one, as three large often is.  The target was clearly 6*100 - 6*2, but making the 2 was not feasible.  I wrote down a fallback one off 589 = 6*100 - 10 - 1, and in the end that was where I had to stay.

I was, alas, too obsessed with using that 6 in such a way.  Had I instead looked at the factorisation it implied I might have done better.  The target is 6*98, which is also 12*49, and that 49 is provocative since we can make it as 50 - 1.  That would require being able to make 12 from 100, 75, 6, 10, and that turns out to be possible, yielding the solution 588 = ((10 + 6)*75 / 100)*(50 - 1).

There is one other solution, which is perhaps more easily found if one considers that in the previous approach we modifed the 12 by 4/3 (or 100/75, if you prefer) to get 16 as a new target.  We could go the other direction, modifying it by 3/4 to get 9.  Unfortunately 9 and 49 cannot both be made separately, but their product is 441, and that can be.  Putting that all together yields the harder solution: 588 = ((50 - 6)*10 + 1)*100 / 75.

My selection: 589 = 6*100 - 10 - 1  [1 off ]
Best: 588 = ((10 + 6)*75 / 100)*(50 - 1)


Round 9: CRASH SITE

Definitely a tough one, this.  I think it must have been considering -ISE as a fragment that got me to CHASTISE, and thus to a slightly uncertain guess of CHASTISER.

My selection: CHASTISER (25.1s)