Yup. That's a typo. Sorry 'bout that, that's what I get for making up code instead of using cut-and-paste. ;-) It should be:

my @vars;
$string =~ /(?{local @1 = ();}
             (?:( (\d) (?{ local @1 = (@1, $1) })
                   \w )+
                 \d\w
             (?{ @vars = @1 })/x;
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elusion : http://matt.diephouse.com