NG 246

New game 246 is now available.  Apologies for the delay.


Round 1: G A R A C O N B O

I had AGAR, CARGO, BACON, was dubious about RACOON (it is listed as a valid variant spelling of RACCOON, however), COBRA / CAROB, and CARBON.  After time I checked up on GARCON and was a little surprised to find that it was valid (pretty much imported straight from the French: "a waiter").

Six is the limit, with the others being BRONCO, CORONA, ANGORA / ORGANA (plural of ORGANUM or ORGANON: "an instrument of thought or knowledge"), and BROGAN ("a coarse, stout shoe") / BARONG ("a large broad-bladed knife or cleaver used by the Moros of the Philippines").

My selection: CARBON


Round 2: E F L E S A W E R

I had FLEE, FEELS, FEELERS, and RELEASE.

The other seven is WELFARE, and this seems to be pluralisable to WELFARES for the only eight.

My selection: FEELERS
Best: WELFARES


Round 3: Target 313 from 25 50 7 5 5 8

My first step was to put aside 8 and 5 to make the offset of 13, and then the aim was to get to 300 with the rest.  This looked briefly troubling as the 25 had to be multiplied by something even, but fortunately ignoring the 50 entirely worked out: 313 = (7 + 5)*25 + 8 + 5.  Note that there is a simple reversal for another solution: 313 = (8 + 5)*25 - (7 + 5).

My selection: 313 = (7 + 5)*25 + 8 + 5


Round 4: A S I N L C O C M

I had SLAIN, MOCCASIN, MANIOCS, COMICAL, and LACONIC.

The other eights are COSMICAL and LACONISM.  The other sevens are CONICAL, MASONIC / CAMIONS (CAMION: "a strongly built truck or cart for carrying heavy loads"), OILCANS, CALICOS, and COCAINS.

My selection: MOCCASIN


Round 5: D E D E F S I L E

I had DEED, DEFIES, knew from previous checking that FEELIES was not valid, DEFILED, DEFILES, and FIELDED.

The other seven is FIDDLES.

My selection: DEFILED


Round 6: Target 732 from 75 100 2 3 10 1

The nearest easy target was 750, and a little tweaking turned that into a solution with 732 = (75 - 2)*10 + 3 - 1.  A little after time I considered getting to 700 as 4*175 and tweaked that to another solution: 732 = (3 + 1)*(100 + 75 + 10 - 2).

My selection: 732 = (75 - 2)*10 + 3 - 1


Round 7:  H E R A C O R A S

I had HEAR, OCHRE, an unsure CHOREA (I've looked this up before; it has an entry as just CHOREA, but the only definitions within it are specifically for HUNTINGTON'S CHOREA and SYDENHAM'S CHOREA; I'm not sure if it would be considered valid or not), then remembered that OCHREA was a valid anagram of it (although one has to look under OCREA to find that out: "a sheathing part, as a pair of stipules united about a stem"), SEARCH, ARCHERS, ROACHES, and HOARSER.  After time I noted COARSER as another seven, and checked up on HORSECAR but it was not listed.  (I note that HORSECAR was in the Scrabble list I used for checking, however.)

The other sevens are CRASHER, ROSACEA, and ORACHES (ORACHE being a variant spelling of ORACH, a type of plant).  Plus possibly CHOREAS, as per the concerns of the previous paragraph.

My selection: ARCHERS


Round 8: Target 775 from 25 100 4 6 1 10

A multiple of 25 is usually easy enough.  Here I noted that I could get to 750 as 6*125, and that the final 25 was 6*4 + 1.  The resulting solution was 775 = 6*(100 + 25 + 4) + 1.  Then I took a more expected approach of 775 = (10 + 4 - 6)*100 - 25.

My selection: 775 = 6*(100 + 25 + 4) + 1


Round 9: DECENT FIG

Not much rearrangement to be done here, and the -ING often simplifies matters.  It did not take too long to extract DEFECTING from the mix.

My selection: DEFECTING (1.8s)