NG 249

New game 249 is now available.


Round 1: T C E C O D S I L

I had COTE, DECOCT ("to boil (a medicinal substance, etc.) in water, etc.; to extract the essence of principles"; as I've mentioned before, this is the only word formed by concatenating two three-letter month abbreviations), COSTED, CESTOID ("(of worms) ribbonlike"), COLDEST, and DECOCTS.

The other sevens are CITOLES (CITOLE meaning either of two different musical instruments), COEDITS, COLDIES, CODICES (plural of CODEX: "a manuscript volume of an ancient classic, the Scriptures, etc."), and DELICTS (DELICT: "(chiefly in Scotland) a legal offence for which the person wronged has the right to a civil remedy").

Update: Victor found another seven of COTISED (COTISE is a heraldic term; as a verb it means "to border with cotises" while as a noun it is "a narrow diminutive of a bend").  Nice one, Victor!

My selection: COLDEST


Round 2: G R E N I A S N E

I had REIGN, SEARING, GRANNIES, SNEERING, and EARNINGS.
 
As usual, the fourth vowel does not play so well with -ING; the next consonant would have been a W, yielding the appropriate ANSWERING for nine.  But instead eight is the limit; the others are ENGRAINS (ENGRAIN being a variant spelling of INGRAIN) and ANSERINE ("resembling a goose; gooselike").

My selection: SNEERING


Round 3: Target 456 from 100 75 1 4 9 3

The nearby multiple of 25 is 6*75, and a quick tweak finished it off: 456 = (9 - 3)*(75 + 1).

My selection: 456 = (9 - 3)*(75 + 1)


Round 4: W I R D U S A S N

I had RIDS, DRAWS, SWARDS, wondered about RUSSIAN (not valid; I had recalled that RUSSIA was valid -- as a term for Russia leather -- which was why I even considered this in the first place), DURIANS, SUNWARD, and SUNWARDS.

SUNWARDS is the only eight; the other sevens are INWARDS and SARDIUS (another term for SARD: "a brownish red chalcedony, or a piece of it, used in jewellery, etc.").

My selection: SUNWARDS


Round 5: F T U L T A E C F

I had FAULT, CATTLE, and AFFECT.  I toyed with FLATCUT and FACTLET, but never seriously.

There are two sevens here, though: TACTFUL and FATEFUL.

My selection: CATTLE
Best: TACTFUL


Round 6: Target 402 from 25 50 75 7 3 6

The standard method applies easily enough, as it often does.  The aim is to get to 400 with the 6 and 3 left over, and that was manageable: 402 = 7*50 + 75 - 25 + 6/3.  Then I realised the factor of 6 (with cofactor 67) and found the alternative 402 = (75 - 7 - 3 + 50/25)*6.

My selection: 402 = 7*50 + 75 - 25 + 6/3


Round 7: R D I E H P N E P

I had DIRE, HIRED, PRIDE, HINDER, NIPPED, NIPPER, PREPEND, and contemplated EPHEDRIN.  I'd used EPHEDRINE as a conundrum recently (in NG 237), and experience has shown that the final E in such words is often optional.  I decided to chance it, and fortunately this was one of those cases.

EPHEDRIN is the only eight; the other sevens are INHERED, RIPENED / REPINED (REPINE: "to be fretfully discontented and out of sorts"), and PERPEND (an archaic verb meaning "to consider"; it also has a noun sense related to masonry).

My selection: EPHEDRIN


Round 8: Target 730 from 50 25 9 1 1 7

I struggled a little at first, to the extend of writing down a fallback three away: 733 = (9 + 1)*(50 + 25 - 1) - 7.  This is, incidentally, the only way to get to 733; a shame it was not the target!  Fortunately I then realised that the target was 729 + 1, and 729 is a familiar number (the sixth power of 3, or the cube of 9); that opened up the option of making the target as 9*81 + 1.  This happily worked out to give the solution 730 = (50 + 25 + 7 - 1)*9 + 1.

There is only one other solution, the rather unlikely 730 = (50 - 7)*(25 + 1 - 9) - 1.

My selection: 730 = (50 + 25 + 7 - 1)*9 + 1


Round 9: AREA BLAST

I chose this conundrum explicitly after being presented with a variant spelling of it which is not in the Macquarie (and which I did not solve).  I doubt I would have solved this had it been presented to me, though.

My selection: [N/A -- conundrum chosen explicitly]
Best: ALABASTER