News from the Scrabble front

I lost by two points on terminal penalties yesterday, so keen to retrieve matters today, and I am pleased to say that I won by around 20, on a low combined score, despite taking a hit of 20 from my 'Q' when BH went out with a blank.

Victory slightly marred by my making a good score with 'formol' on a triple word, which I did not check beforehand (which is not really allowed) and which BH allowed, believing my story that it was some kind of chemical, possibly to do with disinfection.

But checking up later, I find that the word is not in OED, although it is known to Bing as both the Spanish for formaldehyde and the English for a 5% solution of formaldehyde in water. Not to be confused with formalin which is a 40% solution of same. So not an unreasonable attempt on my part, but I would have failed on challenge, given that OED rules for these purposes.

PS: I may have thought disinfectant by association from lysol, invented in the late nineteenth century, a quite different product which crops up in the Švejk of reference 1. There used to spray sacks of rice and such like.

Reference 1: The Good Soldier Švejk: the fateful adventures of the good soldier Švejk during the world war - Jaroslav Hašek - 1921/3.