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)
4 comments:
MASTERED
RUPEE
x - saw the 43*8 method but it took too long to get the 43 and write it down in 30s: (50-(8-(5-100/25)))*8=344
SALOON
PLANTS
5*(100+50)+25+10=785 (1 off)
CREASE
5*50+25+8=283 (3 off)
x
1. DEFAMERS ? (wish I had seen MASTERED)
2. PRUNE
3. 344 = 8*(50 - 5 - 8/(100/25) )
4. SALOON
5. TOENAILS
6. 1-away Mike's way
7. JERBOAS
8. 286 = 7*(50 - 8) - 5 - 75/25
9. SWEETSHOP (~9 minutes)
1. mastered
2. x taking a punt with penure
3. same as Mike, took me a while to get the 43 in the way Victor did.
4. unhooks
5. x another punt with pletions
6. 6x(100+25) + (50-10-5)=785 (1 off)
7. braces
8. (7x50)-75+(25-8-5)=287 (1 off)
9. sweetshop (26.3s)
1. STREAMED/MASTERED
2. x PUNNER (speculator)
3. 344 = 8*(50 - 8 + 5 - 100/25)
4. UNHOOKS
5. TOENAILS/ELATIONS/SAPONITE. I was mildly tempted by ANTIPOLES, but thought that I would already be familiar with the word if it was Macquarie-approved.
6. 1-away: 785 = (100+50)*5 + 25 + 10
7. CREASE
8. 286 = (50+8)*5 - 7 + 75/25
9. 4 minutes - SWEETSHOP
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