Spoilers for Thursday 7th February 2008

[Conor]

DIAPIRS in Rd. 4

[Craig Beevers]

TALLEST in round 6 I think it was. However there was also ALLOTTEES which I wasn't sure of the spelling or whether it was actually in in the first place.

[Conor]

UNLOADERS.

[Conor]

ECOTONE... was on quite recently.

[Craig Beevers]

ECOTONE and CONNOTE in round 13

[Craig Beevers]

Brutal conundrum that

[Joseph Bolas]

Brutal conundrum that

I always thought a crucial conundrum was meant to be an easy one in the Prelims myself .

Was YEILDED allowed in Round 12 or was that mentioned?

EDIT: I checked the speedy recap and it was.

[David O'Donnell]

CARMINES was a strange omission today because I am fairly sure it has been allowed in the past.

[M. George Quinn]

UNLOADERS.

I got that one in the green room but there wasn't anyone there to tell. I told the next person to come through the door and I sounded like a prat.

George

[Charlie Reams]

Haha. Oh well, I retrospectively award you a "good spot" star.

[Julian Fell]

Yes, brutal conundrum (didn't get it) and a lot of brutal letters rounds. DC-beaters in 7 different rounds (equalling the record?), but I wouldn't be too critical of them because there were a lot of really tough-to-spot maxes in there. I got INCREASE, UNLOADERS and ECOTONE, and STELLATE in the round where ALLOTTEES was available. Missed the other beaters though.

Really thought Ian was going to be an octochamp after yesterday's performance, but it's same story as with Gayle - he let his level drop in the third game, and paid the price.

Re Joseph's point - yes there have been a lot of really difficult conundrums this series so far haven't there? As far as I can remember, we never used to get stinkers like GREENLADY, HOTILASSI, DIETSPICE, WHENROMEO, SPAMBALTI in ordinary heats around the time I was on... certainly my set of 8 were a doddle compared to those. If Damian's reading - has there been a conscious decision to make conundrums harder recently? I'm not saying I'm against it, I quite like tough conundrums... I'm sure the current contestants aren't thanking you though!

[Martin Smith]

Susie doesn't seem to be back on form. I can understand her missing 'ecotone' (was pleased to see that, as it came up in my episode), but I thought she'd get 'tallest'. I had Carmines as well; seems to be a mass noun, obviously different shades aren't used often enough.

[Charlie Reams]

As has been pointed out before, Susie doesn't have much to do with getting the words.