Spoilers for Monday 21st February 2022 (Series 85, Prelim 36)

[Philip A]

First transgender contestant on Countdown?

[Philip A]

First time Anne Robinson wins a letters round!

[Gavin Chipper]

First transgender contestant on Countdown?

Well seeing as you ask, I'm pretty sure there have been one or two previously but it just wasn't said.

[Johnny Canuck]

100sAFP last numbers round: 25 * (8 + 6) - 2 / 2 = 349

Subtitles are MIA again.

[Howie Myers]

r 13 alt: ANGRIEST

Surely it should be fertilise rather than fertilize?

[Philip A]

r 13 alt: ANGRIEST

Surely it should be fertilise rather than fertilize?

Nothing wrong with the conundrum either way. Don’t forget -IZE is not necessarily an Americanism, contrary to what some UK residents may believe. While -ISE is a standard British spelling, Oxford Dictionaries typically use the -IZE spelling as the headword for most (but not all) verbs, because -IZE is in fact an Oxford spelling (a usage dating back to the 16th century). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_spelling This is adopted on the show.

On this occasion, fertilize is the headword in ODO Premium and Lexico, as well as in Oxford’s paper dictionaries, so both FERTILIZE and FERTILISE are valid on Countdown – as are MINORIZE and MINORISE even though the latter is not specified.

If the headword is spelled -ISE, then the -IZE spelling is not accepted; examples include ADVERTISE, ADVISE and SURPRISE, so no advertize x, advize x nor surprize x.

[David Williams]

That is all true, but there's still the question as to why Oxford insist on what was correct 500 years ago being correct today. The dictionary is supposed to be of current usage, which I would say is overwhelmingly -ISE. In fact I imagine the few people who do use -IZE only do it because Oxford say they should. If Oxford changed to -ISE, -IZE would probably disappear completely. Contrast this with the way they eliminate hyphens as fast as they decently can.