NG 240

New game 240 is now available.  Apologies that another backlog of answers is building; I'll clear it this weekend.


Round 1: M F T A E E R D S

I had FATE, AFTER, MASTERED / STREAMED, and wondered about DEFAMERS (it turns out to be valid).

The other eight is DRAFTEES.

My selection: MASTERED


Round 2: P E R N U E M U N

I was briefly amused at the first four letters spelling PERN, but it did not get much better.  I had PURE, PRUNE, wondered about PUNNER (not valid), and PENMEN.

The other six is PENNER ("a shearing-shed hand employed to keep the shearers' pen supplied with sheep").

My selection: PENMEN


Round 3: Target 344 from 25 50 100 8 8 5

Getting to 350 seemed like the obvious first step, but it only got me to one away: 345 = 5*(50 - 8/8) + 100.  Then I observed the factorisation 8*43 and was able to make it work with 344 = 8*(50 - 100/25 - (8 - 5)).

My selection: 344 = 8*(50 - 100/25 - (8 - 5))


Round 4: N O S A L K O U H

I had SALON, SALOON, and UNHOOKS.

UNHOOKS looks like the only seven.  The other sixes are UNHOOK, UNLASH / UHLANS (UHLAN: "one of a body of mounted soldiers first known in Europe in Poland, usually carrying lances"), and HOOKAS (HOOKA being a variant spelling of HOOKAH: "a pipe with a long, flexible tube by which the smoke of tobacco, marijuana, etc., is drawn through a vesssel of water and thus cooled").  Also probably HALONS, as I've discussed before.

My selection: UNHOOKS


Round 5: T N A O S P E L I

I had TANS, PANTS, PANTOS, PLANTS, APOSTLE, PLAINEST, and SPOLIATE ("to despoil; plunder").

Good letters, but no nine.  Some sources might allow ANTIPOLES, but it is not in the Macquarie.  The other eights are ELATIONS / TOENAILS / INSOLATE ("to expose to the sun's rays; treat by exposure to the sun's rays"), PANELIST / PANTILES (PANTILE: "a roofing tile straight in its length but with an S-shaped cross-section so that the downward side of one tile overlaps the upward side of the adjacent tile"), POLENTAS, POTLINES (POTLINE: "a succession of electrolytic reduction cells used to make such metals as aluminium from a fused electrolyte"), and the mineral SAPONITE.

My selection: PLAINEST


Round 6: Target 786 from 25 100 50 5 10 6

There's any number of ways to 750, but getting an offset of 36 from that was beyond me.  I could do 35, though, ending up with one away with 785 = 5*(100 + 50) + 25 + 10.  I noticed late in the piece the factorisation 6*131, but was not able to make anything out of it.

The target turns out to be unreachable, and one away is the best to be done.

My selection: 785 = 5*(100 + 50) + 25 + 10  [1 off]


Round 7: J C S O E E R A B

I had JOES (JOE being colloquial for a ewe), SCREE, BRACES, an uncertain BORACES, and ACEROSE ('needle-shaped, as the leaves of the pine").  After time I observed that an M instead of the C would allow JAMBOREES.  Later checking confirmed that BORACES is not valid; some sources give it as a plural of BORAX, apparently, but it's not in the Macquarie.

The other sevens are AEROBES (AEROBE: "a bacterium or other microorganism whose existence requires, or is not destroyed by, the presence of free oxygen") and JERBOAS.

My selection: ACEROSE


Round 8: Target 286 from 50 75 25 5 8 7

Successive approximation got me there in the end, starting from 5*50 to get 286 = 5*(50 + 8) - (7 - 75/25).  There's a certain similarity to the round 3 solution.

My selection: 286 = 5*(50 + 8) - (7 - 75/25)


Round 9: THEW POSES

It took me a while to find something plausible to do with the H or W, but once I got to SHOP I was able to unravel SWEETSHOP from that.

My selection: SWEETSHOP (14.0s)