New game 257 is now available.
Round 1: O E A F C P S H R
I had FACE, SPACE, wondered about CAPOES (no special plural form is listed, though, so it is presumed to be invalid), then was pleased to spot FORCEPS for seven. I briefly wondered about FORECAPS, but not seriously.
Alas, I completely ignored the CH combination, and did not see POACH- as a result. The eight that would have been available is POACHERS. (The Macquarie does not list ARCHFOES, unfortunately.)
The other sevens are POACHER, POACHES, PORCHES, PARCHES / EPARCHS (EPARCH: "the prefect or governor of an eparchy"; an eparchy is an administrative area in Greece), ROACHES / ORACHES (ORACH being a type of plant; ORACHE is also an acceptable spelling of it), and CHAFERS.
My selection: FORCEPS
Best: POACHERS
Round 2: N T E A R T I E D
I had NEAT, NATTER, NITRATE, NITRATED, correctly rejected INTERDATE and DENITRATE, and RETAINED / DETAINER.
Good letters, and there is in fact a nine here: INTREATED (INTREAT being a variant spelling of ENTREAT). The other eights are NATTERED / ATTENDER, RETINTED, and ITERATED.
My selection: NITRATED
Best: INTREATED
Round 3: Target 933 from 50 8 4 2 7 9
Getting close to start with was not too bad, and I wrote down a fallback one-off 932 = 9*2*50 + 4*8. Nothing in that vein seemed to get to the solution, and I started looking increasingly far away for options. Dividing by 8 gave a result near 117, and I could get to 118. The remaining difference was 11, and that was exactly right for the remaining numbers, giving me the solution 933 = 2*8*(50 + 9) - 7 - 4.
My selection: 933 = 2*8*(50 + 9) - 7 - 4
Round 4: N D A A L C I U M
I had LAND, CANAL, wondered about UNLAID (it is valid), UNCLAD, and then somehow came up with the plant CALADIUM for eight. I mentioned this word back in episode 404 -- it's amazing what sticks in the mind!
The other eight is DULCIANA ("an organ stop having metal pipes, and giving thin, incisive, somewhat stringlike tones"). Some sources might allow MANDALIC, but not the Macquarie.
The sevens are MAUDLIN, ALUMINA, INCUDAL (adjective derived from INCUS, one of the bones in the ear), and LADANUM (variant form of LABDANUM: "a resinous juice that exudes from various rockroses [...], used in perfumery, fumigating substances, medicinal plasters, etc.").
My selection: CALADIUM
Round 5: I U E S M B G T T
I had MUSE, IMBUES, and SUBMIT. After time I amused myself with GUMBIEST (but somehow did not think of GUMBIES; just as well in a way, as the Macquarie fails to list the plural form) and then found BUTTIES for seven. Except that -- just like with GUMBIES -- the Macquarie fails to list the required plural form of BUTTY, and this cannot be valid.
Six seems to be the best possible -- SUBITEM was the other contender, but it is not listed -- with the others being BUTTES and BEGUMS (BEGUM: "(in India) a Muslim woman ruler"). There's also the dubious MUTEST; strictly speaking that requires a spelling shift since the E would otherwise be doubled, and I don't really know what would happen on the show.
My selection: IMBUES
Round 6: Target 285 from 100 50 9 3 1 1
Starting with 3*100 is pretty tempting, and a small tweak solved the rest of it: 285 = 3*(100 - 1 - 1) - 9.
My selection: 285 = 3*(100 - 1 - 1) - 9
Round 7: I E O T S R L C A
I had TIES, SORTIE, LOITERS, CLOISTER, CALORIES / CARIOLES, and then recalled that this mix had come up before (in episode 52, in particular) and managed to recall the full monty of SECTORIAL.
The other full monty is SCLEROTIA (plural of SCLEROTIUM: "a vegetative, resting, food-storage body in certain higher fungi [...]").
The other eights are SOCIETAL, LOCATERS, RECITALS / ARTICLES / STERICAL (variant form of STERIC: "relating to the spatial arrangement of atoms in the molecule"), COSTLIER, SECTORAL, and LORICATE ("covered with a lorica", which is "a hard protective case or sheath [...]").
My selection: SECTORIAL
Round 8: Target 711 from 100 75 5 3 1 2
The target is 9*79, but that seems difficult to exploit. I did note that 700 was 4*175, and with a little tweaking that led to a solution: 711 = (100 + 75 + 2)*(5 - 1) + 3.
My selection: 711 = (100 + 75 + 2)*(5 - 1) + 3
Round 9: BRING BAIT
As usual, pull out the -ING where possible. In this case it soon led to RABBITING.
My selection: RABBITING (1.7s)
6 comments:
1. poachers
2. nattered then retained (a repeat from yesterday)
3. (9x2)x50 +(8x4) =932 (1 off)
4. alumina
5. butties (not sure, think this is Scottish slang for a chip sandwich??)
6. (3x100)-[(50/1+1)-9]=286 (1 off)
7. cloister
8. (5+2)x(100+1) +3=710 (1 off)
9. x
Numbers tricky tonight.
Lovely word finding from you in this game, Louise. BUTTY is more general British slang, not just Scottish, as I understand it (and can mean either a chip sandwich, or a sandwich in general -- the phrase "chip butty" is sometimes used for the former). However, this is one of the Macquarie's stupid bits, where it fails to list the plural form, as the show would have required. :(
I picked BUTTIES as well.
POSHER
RETAINED (learnt from experience)
Louise's way (1 off)
UNCLAIM (doubtful in this one)
BUTTIES
x- error
CASTER
x- went over time (5+3)*(75+1)+100+2=710 (1 off)
RABBITING (39s)
1. POACHERS
2. DETAINER
3. 1-away: 934 = 2*(9*50 + 8 + 7) + 4
4. MANIAC (haven't heard of CALADIUM before)
5. IMBUES
6. 285 = 3*(100 - 50/(9 + 1) )
7. SECTORIAL
8. 711 = (5 - 1)*(100 + 75 + 2) + 3
9. RABBITING - 14.2s
1. PORCHES, quite annoyed to miss POACHERS, I think this came up in a real game.
2. RETAINED (thought of ENTREATIES, must have been close)
3. 1-away: 932 = 2*9*50 + 8*4
4. MANIAC
5. GUMBIES
6. 285 = 3*(100-1-1) - 9
7. SECTORIAL/SCLEROTIA
8. 711 = (5 - 1)*(100 + 75 + 2) + 3
9. RABBITING - 3.2s
Mike: No joy on UNCLAIM, I'm afraid (although UNCLAIMED is listed).
Victor: I didn't know where I dragged CALADIUM from; I certainly didn't know what it meant. Later checking suggests that this can only have been the influence from episode 404.
Sam: You and me both -- I was pleased with FORCEPS, but all those -CH- words that I did not even consider... ouch. GUMBIES has the same issue that BUTTIES does, by the way.
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