NG 237

New game 237 is now available.


Round 1: P M O A T M A R W

I had ATOM and TRAMP, and that was the best I could do within time.  A little afterwards I saw MARMOT as a six here.

The other six is PARAMO ("a high plateau region in tropical South America, especially one bare of trees").

My selection: TRAMP
Best: MARMOT


Round 2: E E N T D E O R G

I had TEEN, TONED, DENOTE, wished that the O had been yet another E for DETERGENT, rightly rejected RENOTED, GREETED, and ENTERED.

The other sevens are RENEGED / GREENED, ERODENT ("eroding; erosive"), and DETERGE ("to wipe away").

My selection: ENTERED


Round 3: Target 237 from 75 25 2 10 4 1

My first thought was to make the target as 240 - 3, which required keeping the 1 aside, as well as the 2 or the 4.  A little thought got me to a solution this way with 237 = 4*(75 - 25 + 10) - 2 - 1.  Then I realised that the target was also 3*79 which led to the rather simpler 237 = (2 + 1)*(75 + 4).

My selection: 237 = (2 + 1)*(75 + 4)


Round 4: D H E E T A L A I

I had HEED, HEATED, ELATED, DETAIL, DAHLIA, correctly rejected DELETIA, and incorrectly tried HALATED.  I was forming this from HALATION ("the blurring in a photographic negative or print of very light areas (as a window in an interior view) caused by the reflection of light from the back of the support on which the emulsion is coated"), but I could not remember what HALATION meant.  If I had it might possibly have dissuaded me, but probably not.

Six appears to be the best on offer; there's a few others, of which I'll just mention HEALED as a common one.

My selection: [invalid -- HALATED]
Best: HEALED


Round 5: M H U E S T I O F

I had MUSE, SHUTE, a slightly uncertain FUMIEST (I'd have chanced it if necessary, as I was pretty sure I'd checked it before; it does turn out to be valid), a more dubious OUTFISH (not valid), FETISH, and finally a seven I was sure of: FOMITES (plural of FOMES: "a substance, as bedding or clothing (but not food), capable of transmitting infection").

The other seven here is HOMIEST.

My selection: FOMITES


Round 6: Target 168 from 75 25 1 6 3 7

I recognised the target as the number of hours in a week, which is thus 7*24.  My first solution was 168 = 7*(25 - 1), then avoided the large numbers entirely with 168 = 7*6*(3 + 1).

My selection: 168 = 7*6*(3 + 1)


Round 7: C L A A B R O I N

I had CABAL and RACIAL, and wished that one of those A's had been a U for BINOCULAR.  I briefly pondered BARONICAL but easily rejected it.

Of course, just dropping the C would have yielded a valid eight of BARONIAL.  Bother.  The other eights are CARBINOL (another name for methyl alcohol) and ANABOLIC.

The other sevens are CRANIAL / CARINAL (adjective derived from CARINA: "a keel-like part or ridge"), OCARINA, CLARION, and CARABIN (variant form of CARBINE).

My selection: RACIAL
Best: BARONIAL


Round 8: Target 362 from 25 50 4 9 2 4

This felt like a surprisingly difficult numbers game for the numbers and target.  After a little experimentation I saw that I could get to one away as 325 + 36 and wrote that down: 361 = 9*(25 + 4) + 2*50.  Then I tried making it as 375 - 13, keeping the 9 and a 4 aside for the 13.  Happily this worked out, giving me the solution 362 = 2*4*50 - 25 - 9 - 4.

After time I noted another solution that made the target as 350 + 12 with some tweaking: 362 = 2*(9*25 - 50 + 4) + 4.

My selection: 362 = 2*4*50 - 25 - 9 - 4


Round 9: HINDER PEE

I got hung up on the -ED ending for a while, which was not helpful.  What got me to the answer was considering an EPI- beginning.  That was not correct either, but it had the right sound to get me to the answer of EPHEDRINE.  And then, of course, I could not resist the above form for the conundrum since one possible effect of taking EPHEDRINE is to make it difficult to urinate.

My selection: EPHEDRINE (18.6s)