Spoilers for Thursday 18th of September

[Martin Gardner]

Can you pluralise PROLINE?

[Peter Mabey]

PROLINES

[Paul Howe]

Can you pluralise PROLINE?

It's a chemical, so arguably you can use "prolines" as shorthand for "proline molecules". I reckon it'd be disallowed on the show though.

[Michael Simmonds]

After playing around for the last hour-hour since the show ended, I finally managed to get the 2nd numbers game! I would suspect there is an easier answer but I haven't found it. Anyway here goes: 9 x 10 + 25 = 115 x 8 = 920 - 54 ( 9 x 6) = 866.

[Charlie Reams]

Very impressive, and a quick run through a solver shows that there's no easier method, although one alternative is:

(10+8)x6 - 9 = 99.
99x9 - 25 = 866.

[Richard Priest]

MENARCHE, round 9.

Pretty impressive performance by Sarah.

[Michael Simmonds]

Not as impressive as I would have liked Charlie. One of the first things I did was add and take away 25 from the total, and realising 891 was divisable by 9 I tried myself to get 99 from the remaining numbers and failed miserably!

[JimBentley]

Very impressive, and a quick run through a solver shows that there's no easier method, although one alternative is:

(10+8)x6 - 9 = 99.
99x9 - 25 = 866.

I had:

(25-9) x 6 = 96
96 x 9 = 864
864 + 10 - 8 = 866

Not within the time, though, I spent most of that pointlessly arsing around trying to make 35 from 10, 9, 8 and 6

[Kirk Bevins]

Very impressive, and a quick run through a solver shows that there's no easier method, although one alternative is:

(10+8)x6 - 9 = 99.
99x9 - 25 = 866.

I had:

(25-9) x 6 = 96
96 x 9 = 864
864 + 10 - 8 = 866

Not within the time, though, I spent most of that pointlessly arsing around trying to make 35 from 10, 9, 8 and 6

When there were all high numbers like that and it's hard to make the 35 or whatever, that is usually a hint to me to look for a different route. Stupidly I looked for the x10 route so got 870. I'd usually look for something more obscure like the x9 route but alas.

MENARCHE was a great spot Richard, well done. I was also impressed with the challenger today - spotting WOODSMEN impressed me, despite declaring the wrong length.

[Charlie Reams]

spotting WOODSMEN impressed me, despite declaring the wrong length.

Many other women have spotted that my manswood is the wrong length

[Kirk Bevins]

spotting WOODSMEN impressed me, despite declaring the wrong length.

Many other women have spotted that my manswood is the wrong length

Awww - but what about the girth?

[Howard Somerset]

I liked the little smirk Carol gave in the last letters game when she started by saying S and M.