NG 327

New game 327 is now available.


Round 1: I S M L E E N R D

I had SLIM, SMILE, MINDERS / REMINDS, SLENDER, DENIERS, and LINSEED.  I'd hoped that one of the last two letters might have been an H for HEMLINES, but no such luck.  I also spotted the Scrabble-valid eight of REDLINES, but that's come up often enough before that I know it's not in the Macquarie.  After time I noted other sevens of SIDEMEN, LIMNERS, LENDERS, and MENDERS.

Seven is the limit here, it seems.  The others are ERMINES, ERMINED, MERLINS (MERLIN being a type of falcon), RESILED (RESILE: "to spring back; rebound; resume the original form or position, as an elastic body"), NEREIDS (a NEREID being a type of marine worm) / RESINED, REMISED (REMISE: "Law to give up a claim to; surrender by deed"), ENSILED (ENSILE: "to preserve (green fodder) in a silo"), MILDENS (MILDEN: "to become mild or milder"), and LIERNES (LIERNE: "a short connecting rib used in Gothic vaulting").

My selection: SLENDER


Round 2: O A T L I I R N R

I had ALIT, TAILOR / RIALTO, RATION, and noted that adding an A to the mix would give IRRATIONAL.

Six seems to be the best on offer; the others are TRINAL ("threefold; triple; trine") / RATLIN (variant form of RATLINE, a nautical term: "any of the small ropes or lines which traverse the shrouds horizontally, serving as steps for going aloft"), NITRIL (variant form of NITRILE: "any of a class of organic cyanides with the general formula RCN"), and LATION ("Aboriginal English a relative") / TALION ("retaliation as authorised by law, especially when the punishment inflicted corresponds in kind and degree to the injury, as 'eye for eye'").

My selection: TAILOR


Round 3: Target 113 from 100 5 9 4 10 9

I went with the obvious 113 = 100 + 9 + 4, then unsuccessfully tried to make the target from the small numbers only.  Later checking showed that there was one way to do so, though: 113 = (9 + 9)*(10 - 4) + 5.

My selection: 113 = 100 + 9 + 4


Round 4: S S E M D M I E U

I had MESS, SIDES, MISUSED, and MEDIUMS.

Scrabble might allow MISDEEMS, but not the Macquarie, so seven is the best to be done.  The others are DUMMIES and DEMISES.  The Macquarie does list MIMESIS ("Rhetoric imitation or reproduction of the supposed words of another, as in order to represent his or her character") but does not give an explicit plural form, so MIMESES is not alid.

My selection: MEDIUMS


Round 5: E R T E B N O C A

I had TREE, BERET, BENTER (by abuse of the single-syllable rule for adjectives), ENACTOR, and CAROTENE.

There's a minor trap here: CABERNET appears in the Macquarie only as part of the terms CABERNET FRANC and CABERNET SAUVIGNON, so it is not valid.  CAROTENE is thus the only eight.  The other sevens are ACETONE, BARONET / REBOANT ("resounding loudly"), CRENATE ("having the margin notched or scalloped so as to form rounded teeth, as a leaf"), and OCREATE ("having an ocrea or ocreae; sheathed").  RE-ENACT is listed, but only with the hyphen.

My selection: CAROTENE


Round 6: Target 949 from 50 25 75 2 7 9

Getting to one off was clearly manageable, so I wrote down the fallback of 950 = 9*(75 + 25) + 50.  While considering other options to get near without multiplying by 9 I remembered that 875 was 7*125.  That was very promising indeed as 9 and 2 could make another 7 which could tweak to give the 49, and the remaining 25 was exactly what was needed.  The result was the solution 949 = 7*(75 + 50 + 9 - 2) + 25.

There are quite a few solutions to this, as it turns out, using such options as 1024 - 75 (1024 is the tenth power of 2, and thus 32*32 or 16*64, both of which can be used) or 999 - 50.  But I'll mention two in particular; the first utilises the factorisation 13*73, which was actually findable if one thinks to look for it (since the nearby 910 is 13*70, or alternatively 975 is 13*75).  That leads to a solution of 949 = (9*7 - 50)*(75 - 2).

The other solution I'll mention uses a technique from the large numbers, giving the solution 949 = (25*75 + 9)/2 + 7.  I wish I'd thought of that option.

My selection: 949 = 7*(75 + 50 + 9 - 2) + 25


Round 7: L A D U P N A G P

I had LAUD / DUAL, UPLAND, PANDA, and APPLAUD (which I'd idly contemplated after the first five letters but had not expected a second P).

APPLAUD is the only seven.  The other sixes are LANDAU (a type of carriage) and PADNAG ("an ambling nag").

My selection: APPLAUD


Round 8: Target 953 from 50 7 3 4 9 10

Definitely time for the standard method, and it works out straightforwardly enough: 953 = (10 + 9)*50 + 3.

My selection: 953 = (10 + 9)*50 + 3


Round 9: SPRING TOP

The P's seem likely to go together, and with the -ING fragment it was a short step to STROPPING.  I considered presenting this conundrum as STRIP PONG (which seems like an inevitable variation of beer pong), but then realised a simple vowel swap would give the answer.

My selection: STROPPING (1.3s)