NG 417

New game 417 is now available.


Round 1: A R O I A D G H R

I had ARIA, RADIO, wondered about GARDIA (not valid), and ADAGIO.  (With respect to GARDIA, I was probably trying to think of GARDAI, the Irish police force.  Although GARDIA is not valid I will note that both GARDIYA and GADIA are, as variant spellings of KARTIYA: "Aboriginal English a non-Aboriginal person of European descent".)

Six is the best to be done, with the others being HORRID and HAIRDO.  (Scrabble would also allow the amusing AARRGH, apparently.)

My selection: ADAGIO


Round 2: P O O E O K N M T

I had POKE, OPEN, MOPOKE (a type of owl), and was a little tempted by POKÉMON but rightly avoided it.  It does get a mention, but only as part of the term "Pokémon generation" and so is not valid (both because of the phrase, and the capitalisation).

MOPOKE seems to be the only six.  The fives are TOKEN, TEMPO, KEMPT, and MONTE ("a gambling game played with cards").

My selection: MOPOKE


Round 3: Target 444 from 9 3 4 3 8 9

I wanted to use the factorisation 12*37, but was not quite able to get it to work.  While looking at the nearby option of 6*8*9 = 432, I realised that the offset was 12 and the remaining numbers gave that quite handily; the resulting solution was 444 = (9 - 3)*8*9 + 3*4.  Switching tacks, I tried to find a solution via 4*111 instead and was able to get that to work with 444 = ((9 + 3)*9 + 3)*4.

Later checking showed that there were two ways to make 12*37 work, both making the 12 as 9 + 3.  One makes the 37 as 8*(9 - 4) - 3, the other as 8*3 + 9 + 4.

My selection: 444 = ((9 + 3)*9 + 3)*4


Round 4: A R E E X S W R N

I had AXES, ERASE, WAXERS, wondered about REWAXES (not valid), an uncertain WEANERS (WEANER is valid, although not quite in the sense I thought: "a young animal which has been weaned from its mother's milk, to live wholly on grass"), ANSWER, wondered about ANSWERER, WARNERS / WARRENS, and was dubious about REANSWER (not valid).  I vacillated for a while about whether to chance ANSWERER, but eventually decided against it.  Alas, it is valid, and the only eight in the mix.

The other sevens are EARNERS and SWEARER / WEARERS.

My selection: WARRENS
Best: ANSWERER


Round 5: R U A L N S E T G

I had LUNAR, could not remember if ULNAS was an acceptable plural form of ULNA (it is, as is ULNAE), LEARNS, STRANGLE, and GRANULES.

The other eights are TANGLERS, NEUTRALS, GESTURAL, and LANGUETS (LANGUET: "any part or projection shaped like a tongue").

My selection: STRANGLE


Round 6: Target 158 from 50 75 100 7 8 3

I went with a fairly obvious 158 = 100 + 50 + 8 to start, then with the variation 158 = 3*50 + 8.

My selection: 158 = 3*50 + 8


Round 7: N P I U O R A S M

I had PRION, PRIONS, and PARISON ("a preliminary shape or blank, from which a glass article is to be formed").  After time I noted another seven of SPUMONI (variant spelling of SPUMONE: "Italian ice-cream of a very fine and smooth texture, usually containing chopped fruit or nuts").

The eight here is RAMPIONS (RAMPION being a type of flower).  The other sevens are RAMPION and SOPRANI.

My selection: PARISON
Best: RAMPIONS


Round 8: Target 439 from 100 25 8 3 6 2

The standard method suggests 450 - 11, or 425 + 14.  The 11 could be 8 + 3, and the 14 could be 8  + 6.  450 is a more approachable intermediate value, though, so that is where my attention turned; the result was 439 = 6*(100 - 25) - 8 - 3.

My selection: 439 = 6*(100 - 25) - 8 - 3


Round 9: NIGHT GEAR

After pulling out the -ING, GATHER was left.

My selection: GATHERING (3.8s)