NG 316

New game 316 is now available.


Round 1: E I T R E T C N C

I had RITE, TRITE, TIERCE ("Fencing the third of eight defensive positions") / RECITE, and CENTRIC ("related to or situated at the centre").  I noted that replacing one of the T's with another C would have given ECCENTRIC, or with an E one could make RETICENCE.

Despite that last observation, I failed to spot the eight in this mix: RETICENT.  Whoops!  The other sevens are ENTICER / ENTERIC ("relating to the enteron; intestinal") and CITTERN (an old type of musical instrument).

My selection: CENTRIC
Best: RETICENT


Round 2: U W N C E A R L A

I had CANE, CRANE, NUCLEAR / UNCLEAR, LACUNAE (one plural form of LACUNA: "a pit or cavity; an interstitial or intercellular space as in plant or animal tissue"), and LACUNAR (adjective derived from LACUNA).

The other seven is UNAWARE.

My selection: NUCLEAR


Round 3: Targt 566 from 100 75 25 8 6 6

There are a couple of easy ways to 600, and getting to one off with 567 = 6*100 - 25 - 8 should hopefully be achievable for most.  However, I missed that option and found my way to that result in more roundabout fashion with 567 = 6*(100 - 6) + 75/25.

Much later, when computer checking confirmed that there was a solution, I managed to reason my way to it at last.  While playing around with the small numbers I realised that 6*(8 + 6) was 84, which had the right offset pattern: The target is 650 - 84.  The form looks promising for tweaking, and indeed from that point it was easy to get to the solution 566 = 6*(100 - 8 - 6) + 75 - 25.  This is the only solution.

My selection: 567 = 6*(100 - 6) + 75/25  [1 off]
Best: 566 = 6*(100 - 8 - 6) + 75 - 25


Round 4: R F P L M O O E Q

I had PROM, PROMO, PROEM ("an introductory discourse; an introduction; a preface; a preamble"), and tried to decide which, if any, of the following were valid: LOOPER / POOLER / RELOOP / REPOOL and FOOLER.  I was relieved when later checking showed that the only valid one was the one that I tried: LOOPER.  I may have been guided here by dim memories of NG 136.  After time I noted FLOOR and PROOF as other fives, but could not find other plausible sixes.

There was another one, though: POMELO.

My selection: LOOPER


Round 5: A L B I A N I B T

I had BAIL, LIANA, and ALIBI.  I knew from previous checking to avoid LATINA (not listed, and would no doubt be capitalised if it were), but could not find a six.

There is one, though: TIBIAL.

My selection: ALIBI
Best: TIBIAL


Round 6: Target 819 from 100 75 1 8 5 8

My first thought was to try and make this as 825 - 5 - 1, but that proved infeasible.  While experimenting with options I realised that the final 19 was 75 - 56, and that led me to the solution 819 = 8*(100 - (8 - 1)) + 75.

There's a few solutions to this, of which I will mention three.  First up is a more direct use of the idea of 875 - 56 with 819 = 5*(100 + 75) - 8*(8 - 1).  Then there is the option of making the target as 820 - 1 and exploiting the factor of 5; the cofactor is 164 which is immediately provocative: 819 = (100 + 8*8)*5 - 1.  Finally, the target is 7*117, although it might take a bit of work to notice this and making the 117 is not trivial: 819 = ((100 - 75)*5 - 8)*(8 - 1).

My selection: 819 = 8*(100 - (8 - 1)) + 75


Round 7: R O C E S A O S M

I had CORE, SCORE, ACROSS, amused myself briefly with MACROSS, and SCREAMS.  I also noted that a Y instead of one of the O's would allow SYCAMORES.

Seven appears to be the limit, with the only other one being ROSCOES (ROSCOE being prison colloquial for "a gun").

Other sources might allow nines here, but neither is in the Macquarie: SARCOSOME (a type of muscle cell) / ACROSOMES (an ACROSOME being part of a sperm cell).

My selection: SCREAMS


Round 8: Target 909 from 25 100 5 8 2 2

It would be nice to make this as 9*101, but that does not seem doable.  I wrote down a fallback 908 = (5 + 2*2)*100 + 8, and then realised that I could attempt the target as 925 - 2*8.  Fortunately that worked out with a tweak to give the solution 909 = 8*(100 - 2) + 5*25.

My selection: 909 = 8*(100 - 2) + 5*25


Round 9: RIG SHEETS

The -IGHT fragment was immediately enticing, but I was not able to do anything with SIGHT, RIGHT, or EIGHT.  I was not able to get there, in part because I was focused on the -IGHT being at the end of the word, rather than early on as it turns out to be.

My selection: [no answer]
Best: SIGHTSEER