The owners on holiday but his colleague was calling him so assume he's spoken to nominet and they're holding off dropping.
It's clear that more and more people are contacting owners (or trying to) so there will be even less decent names dropping. We'll just be left with the untraceable and uncontactable domains dropping that are any good. Even the liquidators are domain savvy now, and even if you get in contact with an owner, chances are your not the first.
RIP dropcatching imho.
I might move into Heir hunting that's a similar game.