NG 816

New game 816 is now available.

The re-run is episode 79; its rounds are here and its writeup is here.


Round 1: L D A D U M C M E

I had DUAL, MUDDLE, and CLAMMED (CLAM as a verb: "to gather or dig clams"; it is also part of the phrase CLAM UP, of course, but that would not be valid by the show's interpretation).

The other seven is MACULED (MACULE being a variant spelling of MACKLE: "to blur, as from a double impression in printing").

My selection: CLAMMED


Round 2: P T A L E E N K I

I had PETAL, ANKLET, EPILATE ("to pluck out, remove (hair)"), and LINEATE ("marked with lines, especially longitudinal and more or less parallel lines").

The eights here are PETALINE ("related to or resembling a petal") and TAPELIKE.  The other sevens are ANTLIKE, APELIKE / PEALIKE, NETLIKE, PIKELET, PILEATE ("capped, as a mushroom"), and PANTILE ("a roofing tile straight in its length but with an S-shaped cross-section so that the downward side of one tile overlaps the upward side of the adjacent tile").

My selection: EPILATE
Best: PETALINE


Round 3: Target 185 from 100 50 75 8 1 4

I started with 100 + 75 in order to get close, which was clearly going to suffice for one away, but happily found a way to make the required 10 for a solution: 185 = 100 + 75 + 50 / (4 + 1).

My selection: 185 = 100 + 75 + 50 / (4 + 1)


Round 4: S H E G E N E I B

I had GENES, HENGES, SEEING, BEGINS / BEINGS / BINGES, and HINGES / NEIGHS.

There are two sevens here: BESIEGE and SHEBEEN ("Irish and Scottish a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally").

My selection: SEEING
Best: BESIEGE


Round 5: A R D O E U H B N

I had ROAD, ADORE, ABOUND, RONDEAU (a type of poem), UNHEARD, BROADEN, and BOUNDER.  After time I confirmed that BEARHOUND was not a word, and noted another seven of REBOUND.

Seven is the best to be done; the others are UNROBED, BANDORE ("an old musical stringed instrument resembling the lute or the guitar"), and BODHRAN ("a shallow, handheld drum used in traditional Irish music [...]").

My selection: RONDEAU


Round 6: Target 420 from 100 25 5 9 6 8

My first thought was that I wanted to make this as 425 - 5; for some reason I overlooked the straightfoward 420 = (9 + 8)*25 - 5 and instead went with 420 = 9*25 + (8 - 6)*100 - 5.  Then I looked at factorisations, using 4*105 for another solution: 420 = (100 + 5)*(6 - (25 - 9)/8).

After time I noticed that it was easier to use the factorisation 5*84 for 420 = 5*(100 - 25 + 9).

My selection: 420 = (100 + 5)*(6 - (25 - 9)/8)


Round 7: O S L A I T M T F

I had ALSO, SAIL, TAILS, SOMITAL (adjective derived from SOMITE: "any of the longitudinal series of segments or parts into which the body of certain animals is divided"), FLOATS, wished that the I had been an E for FALSETTO, and pondered but rightly rejected MISTOTAL / TOTALISM (which turned up on my Scrabble list, but is not in the Macquarie).  After time I saw the more common seven of FLOTSAM.

The remaining seven is ATOMIST (noun derived from ATOMISM: "the theory that minute discrete, finite, unchangeable, and indivisible elements are the ultimate constituents of all matter, and that all observable change is attributable to change in the relation of such elements to one another").

My selection: SOMITAL


Round 8: Target 916 from 100 7 3 5 8 10

The obvious starting points were 8*100 and 10*100; I started with the first option and tweaked my way up with 916 = 8*(100 + 10 + 5) - (7 - 3).  Then I went with the second to get 916 = 10*(100 - 8) - (7 - 3).

My selection: 916 = 10*(100 - 8) - (7 - 3)


Round 9: TELL BIDET

My selection: [N/A -- chosen]
Best: BELITTLED