NG 270

New game 270 is now available.


Round 1: T J T U E T H I B

I had an unsure TUTE, JUTE (a vegetable fibre), and BUTTE ("an isolated hill or mountain rising abruptly above the surrounding land, found especially in the US and Canada").

Five is the best on offer in this awkward mix; the others are TITHE and TUTTI (a musical term for "all the voices or instruments together (as a direction)").

My selection: BUTTE


Round 2: O I R S K R G O A

I had RISK, RIGORS, ROOKS (since I was briefly uncertain about RIGORS), and an uncertain OORARIS.  I was thinking that OORARI was one of the variant spellings of CURARE, so I ended up chancing it.  Alas, the appropriate variant spelling is OURARI, not OORARI (although there is a hopping mouse called an OORARRIE), and OORARIS is not valid.

A shame, as six is the best and RIGORS would have been a good result.  The other six is the musical direction ARIOSO.

(Some sources appear to list KARROO as a variant spelling of KAROO, which would make KARROOS a seven here.  But the Macquarie does not list either form.)

My selection: [invalid -- OORARIS]
Best: RIGORS


Round 3: Target 345 from 50 10 4 3 7 9

I started with the standard method and 345 = 7*50 - (9 - 4).  Then I pulled out the factor of 5 (the cofactor is 69) for the alternative "solution" (9*7 + 10 - 4)*5.  But of course there is no 5 -- I got confused.  Fortunately I had opted for the first solution -- I only noticed that error while writing this up now.

My selection: 345 = 7*50 - (9 - 4)


Round 4: B F C L E O I M E

I had CLEF, FOIBLE, and MOBILE.  For a moment I thought that IMBECILE was there, but that would require another I.

The other sixes are BECOME, BELIEF, EMBOLI (plural of EMBOLUS: "undissolved material carried by the blood current and imapcted in some part of the vascular system [...]"), CLEOME (any plant of a certain genus), and FIMBLE ("the male or staminate plant of hemp [...]").

But there is a seven here, with the same root as EMBOLI: EMBOLIC.

My selection: MOBILE
Best: EMBOLIC


Round 5: T E A S R R I U N

I had SEAT, TEARS, wondered about RATERS (not valid) then found ARREST as the safe anagram, URINATES / TAURINES, and knew from previous checks that URINATERS is not acceptable (and, more surprisingly, neither is URINATORS).

The other eights are TRAINERS / RESTRAIN / STRAINER / RETRAINS / TERRAINS.

My selection: URINATES


Round 6: Target 308 from 75 25 100 7 2 5

I panicked on this, and got lost; I had to scramble for a one-off 307 = 5*75 - (100 - 25) + 7 in the end.  I had noted the factorisation 7*44, but not thought to flip that to 4*77.  After time I realised that possibility and the solution followed easily: 308 = (75 + 2)*100/25.

My selection: 307 = 5*75 - (100 - 25) + 7  [1 off]
Best: 308 = (75 + 2)*100/25


Round 7: O E L P E S S N A

I had POLE, ELOPE, ELOPES, SEASON, and PALENESS.  I also noted that if the O had been an A then SEAPLANES would have been a full monty.

PALENESS appears to be the only eight; the sevens are PLEASES / ELAPSES, SPLEENS, NAPLESS (for the sense of NAP that is "any downy coating, as on plants"), and SPELEAN ("of, relating to, or inhabiting caves").

My selection: PALENESS


Round 8: Target 817 from 100 75 6 7 1 5

I first tried to work up from 800, but the best I could do with that approach was two away via 815 = (7 + 1)*100 + 75/5.  Fortunately switching to working down from 825 worked much better, yielding the solution 817 = (6 + 5)*75 - 7 - 1.

There's a few other solutions; working up from 775 gives the shortest one via a tweak: 817 = 7*(100 + 6) + 75.

My selection: 817 = (6 + 5)*75 - 7 - 1


Round 9: MATH DUNCE

With UN- and -ED fragments clear it was short work to extract UNMATCHED.

My selection: UNMATCHED (1.4s)