NG 271

New game 271 is now available.


Round 1: S S E I U P O L N

I had ISSUE, SPIES, SLOPES, amused myself with the idea of SOUPLINES, and pondered LUPINES.  LUPINE is the adjective associated with wolves, and I thought that it might also have an associated noun sense of any wolflike creature (in much the same way that FELINE can refer to any member of the cat family).  I decided to chance it, but it turns out that the meaning I hoped for is not listed.

However, I was saved by a stroke of luck -- LUPINE is also listed as a variant (mostly American) spelling of the plant LUPIN, so LUPINES is acceptable.

There were some safer sevens, including LIONESS / LESIONS, EPSILON, and UPSILON.  I was disappointed to miss the Greek letters, particularly as they lead to the eights of EPSILONS and UPSILONS.  The other eights are ELUSIONS (ELUSION: "the act of eluding; evasion; clever escape"), and SPLENIUS ("either of a pair of flat muscles which run obliquely upwards on the back and sides of the neck") / SPINULES (SPINULE: "a small spine or thorn").

But there is a nine here!  It is SPINULOSE, the adjective derived from SPINULE.

My selection: LUPINES
Best: SPINULOSE


Round 2: H N G O E E I S R

I had GONE, HOEING, SHOEING, REGIONS, wondered about RESHOEING, INSHORE, and HEROINES.  The RE- words are always a bit troublesome, so I settled for the eight.

Alas, RESHOEING is valid, so I've talked myself out of the full monty.  Bother.  The other eights are GREENISH / SHEERING and ERINGOES (ERINGO is listed as a variant spelling of the herb ERYNGO, for which ERYNGOES is given as the plural form; the inference is that the correct plural is ERINGOES).

My selection: HEROINES
Best: RESHOEING


Round 3: Target 979 from 25 10 6 2 2 8

An unreachable target -- all those even numbers are too much of an obstacle to overcome.  I floundered my way to an overly complicated one away 978 = (25*10 - 6)*8/2 + 2.  The thinking behind this approach was that the target would have to be made as 1958/2 or therabouts, but it could not quite work.

My selection: 978 = (25*10 - 6)*8/2 + 2  [1 off]


Round 4: I D A S I E T P T

I had SAID, IDEAS, PASTED, and PATTIES.  I noted that a second S instead of the second T would have allowed DISSIPATE, and after time wrote down SPITTED (past tense of SPIT in the sense of "to impale on something sharp") as another seven.

Seven is the best to be done; the others are TIDIEST / DITTIES, SPATTED (SPAT: "to engage in a petty quarrel or dispute"), and PIETIST (noun derived from PIETISM: "exaggeration or affectation of piety").

My selection: PATTIES


Round 5: A S R O F I E C R

I had SOAR, FIACRES (FIACRE being another name for a hackney-coach), amused myself with SCARFIER / FIRECARS but not seriously so, then saw AIRFORCE and thus AIRFORCES for nine.  Alas, AIR FORCE is only listed as two words, so my selection is invalid.

Seven is the best to be done; the others are CARRIES / SCARIER, COARSER, CORSAIR, SCARFER (noun derived from SCARF in the sense of "to join by a scarf or overlapping joint", where SCARF in that definition refers to the ends of parts of a certain joint), FORCERS, CIRROSE ("of the nature of cirrus clouds") / ORRICES (ORRICE being a variant spelling of ORRIS: "any of certain species of iris [...]") / CORRIES (CORRIE: "a circular hollow in the side of a hill or mountain, often containing a small lake, formed by glacial action") / CROSIER (variant spelling of CROZIER: "the pastoral staff of a bishop or an abbot, hooked at one end like a shepherd's crook"), and SCORIAE (plural of SCORIA: "the refuse, dross, or slag left ater smelting or melting metals").

My selection: [invalid -- AIRFORCES]
Best: CARRIES


Round 6: Target 897 from 75 50 6 5 5 3

My first instinct was to make this as 900 - 3, but that proved a little elusive.  Fortunately one of the ways of making 900 that I considered was 50*18, and that lent itself handily to a tweak: 897 = (6*50 - 5/5)*3.  Then I saw how to make the 900 while preserving the 3 to make the original idea work: 897 = 75*6*(50/(5*5)) - 3.

My selection: 897 = (6*50 - 5/5)*3


Round 7: E N E R N I I C D

I had an uncertain NENE (it's a type of goose, but not in the Macquarie as it turns out), INNER, and CINDER.  I rejected RENICED, a term that may be familiar to UNIX system administrators, and noted that an O instead of one of the I's would have allowed ENDOCRINE.

There is a seven here, though: EIRENIC (variant spelling of IRENIC: "peaceful; tending to promote or encourage peace or peaceful arts").

My selection: CINDER
Best: EIRENIC


Round 8: Target 156 from 3 10 8 8 2 4

I recognised the target as 12*13, and that lead directly to the solution 156 = (10 + 3)*(8 + 4).

My selection: 156 = (10 + 3)*(8 + 4)


Round 9: DULL SNEER

I investigated the UN- + -ED fragments first, but that was sufficiently unpromising that I moved on to UNDER- and ended up with UNDERSELL.

My selection: UNDERSELL (9.9s)