NG 274

New game 274 is now available.


Round 1: A N U M S I P L E

I had MANS, MINUS, PLAINS, wondered about UPLINES (not valid), IMPULSE, and MANIPLES (MANIPLE: "a subdivision of the Roman legion, consisting of either 120 or 60 soldiers"; I think I can attribute knowing this to Asterix books).

The other eight is IMPANELS (IMPANEL being a variant form of EMPANEL).  There are many sevens here, of which I'll just MENIALS / SEMINAL, IMPALES, and SPANIEL.

My selection: MANIPLES


Round 2: R S I T A F R A T

I had STIR, STAIR, TIARAS, STRAIT / ARTIST, was pretty sure that FARTIST was not listed (indeed, I noted as such back in NG 201), wished that one of those R's was another T for FRITTATAS (and briefly contemplated FRITATAS as an alternative spelling but rightly rejected it), and amused myself with the idea of ARTFAIRS.  After time I noted STRATA as another six.

There is a seven to be had: TARTARS.  Some other sources might also STRIATA as a plural of STRIATUM, but the Macquarie lists neither.

My selection: TIARAS
Best: TARTARS


Round 3: Target 567 from 75 25 50 5 9 1

I floundered at first, moderately relieved to get to 2 off with 565 = (9 - 1)*75 - 25 - 50/5.  Then part of my searching looked at descending from 9*75 = 675; the offset is 108 which is also divisible by 9, causing me to notice the factorisation 9*63.  With that realisation in hand I was able to form a solution after all: 567 = 9*(75 - (5 + 1)*50/25).

My selection: 567 = 9*(75 - (5 + 1)*50/25)


Round 4: O I T U P E L B M

I had POUT, POLITE, and TUMBLE.

Six does seem to be the limit here; the others are LIMPET, IMPUTE / UPTIME, MOBILE / EMBOLI, MOTILE, PUEBLO ("a communal habitation of certain Native Americans of the south-western US"), ULTIMO ("in or of the month preceding the present"), TELIUM ("the sorus of the rust fungi bearing teliospores"), PUMELO (variant spelling of POMELO), PILEUM ("the top of the head of a bird, from the base of the bill to the nape"), and TUPELO (a type of tree).

My selection: POLITE


Round 5: H E R T I O N E T

I had RITE, THEIR, ORIENT, NEITHER / THEREIN, HEROINE, TRITONE, and wondered about HEREINTO.  I was sure about HEREUNTO, but had a mental block on HEREINTO and erroneously rejected it.

The miss of HEREINTO was doubly bad, as it should have been a short step from it to the full monty of THEREINTO.  Bother!

The other eights are THIRTEEN and the mineral TENORITE.  The other sevens are THERETO, THEREON, and the mineral THORITE.

My selection: NEITHER
Best: THEREINTO


Round 6: Target 226 from 25 50 1 9 4 10

Straightforward with knowledge of the 25-times table (and not that hard without it); I went with 226 = 9*25 + 1.

My selection: 226 = 9*25 + 1


Round 7: R M U H E A N G I

I had RHEUM, HUMANE, and REAMING.  I had another mental slip here -- I had noted within time that changing the H to M would allow the element GERMANIUM (I'd even jotted that down), and that dropping the first M would make GERANIUM.  But because I was making that adjustment to an invalid word, I just mentally marked it off as invalid also.  Sigh.

GERANIUM is the only eight; the other sevens are HARMING, HEARING, RHENIUM, and MANGIER.

My selection: REAMING
Best: GERANIUM


Round 8: Target 454 from 50 100 7 10 2 6

Getting close was easy enough with 7*50 + 100, and the rest worked to yield 454 = 7*50 + 100 + 10 - 6.  Then I considered using a multiple of 10 and found another solution of 454 = (50 - 6)*10 + 2*7.

My selection: 454 = (50 - 6)*10 + 2*7


Round 9: LICK CHEST

This was another conundrum chosen explicitly after being presented with something similar (although I have no idea what it was).  There was an unintentional trap here with CHICKLETS, but the Macquarie does not list CHICKLET (I'm thinking of this in the sense of a young chicken) so the answer is unique.

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