Spoilers for Tuesday 31 May 2016 (Series 74, Prelim 79)

[Johnny Canuck]

An excellent ton debut today by Alasdair Haines, who was, I am reliably informed, active on Apterous for several weeks as a trial member. Particular commiserations to Matthew, however, because had CARMINES been ruled OK, as it has been at least once in the past, it would have been a dead heat, finishing 95-95.

The outcome of this match also verifies that there will no longer be enough time for another octochamp to gatecrash the finals without carrying over, meaning that the #1 through #6 seed contestants are all locked in. So once again, congrats to Paul, Robin, Ann, Conrad, Dave and Tim.

Can someone, preferably Ray W, please check the validities of these two words, both of which are listed by Lex as maxes?
PLOITTER
PAROKETS
For now, I'm assuming they're out.

[Gavin Chipper]

An excellent ton debut today by Alasdair Haines, who was, I am reliably informed, active on Apterous for several weeks as a trial member. Particular commiserations to Matthew, however, because had CARMINES been ruled OK, as it has been at least once in the past, it would have been a dead heat, finishing 95-95.

I noticed that too. It's a shame because I normally order a couple of carmines with my polentas.

Can someone, preferably Ray W, please check the validities of these two words, both of which are listed by Lex as maxes?
PLOITTER
PAROKETS
For now, I'm assuming they're out.

Or anyone who can use a dictionary. So anyone. (Except Susie Dent.) Oh I see - in case it takes specialist knowledge of words that are hidden and don't come up in the search. My superficial search yields nothing for these. The closest I can find is PLOIT, which is a variant spelling of PLOUT (a verb), and there's no indication of any -ER ending.

[Johnny Canuck]

Can someone, preferably Ray W, please check the validities of these two words, both of which are listed by Lex as maxes?
PLOITTER
PAROKETS
For now, I'm assuming they're out.

Or anyone who can use a dictionary. So anyone.

Not anyone... only people who want to risk getting told off for being unreliable recap-makers.
[/sarcasm]

[Peter Mabey]

Can someone, preferably Ray W, please check the validities of these two words, both of which are listed by Lex as maxes?
PLOITTER
PAROKETS
For now, I'm assuming they're out.

PLOTTIER is in the Scrabble dictionary, but excluded because PLOTTY has two syllables.
PAROKET a variant of PAROQUET is in some dictionaries, but not the one used by Countdown.

[Ray Wilding]

@Johnny If it's on this list: http://www.apterous.org/ticket_view.php ... 356#p49869 it's out. I patiently wait for Charlie to update aptodic.

Do we know what the rules are on pluralising colours? Disallowing CARMINES brings into question AUBURNS, CELADONS, CERISES, CERULEANS, CYANS, MAGENTAS, OCHRES, SCARLETS.