2012: Death Gangam Style
So 2012 comes to an end with another couple of hits, bringing the final total for the year to 187, a new record. Perhaps not surprising considering there were more competitors and celebs picked. So who were the last two?
Mariam Amash was one of those people who cropped up claiming to be the oldest person in history but lacked the requisite evidence to confirm this. So as it stands, Amash died at the “unofficial” age of 124. Since the DDP takes as read that age of death for convenience sake, it means three points are awarded plus another three points unique bonus to Brown Bananas.
The final death of 2012 came on the 30th, Nobel prize-winning scientist Rita Levi-Montalcini, who died aged 103. Levi-Montalcini overcame anti-Semitism in Mussolini’s Italy to share the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986. 8 teams score points, with two theme teams getting in their jokers at the final knockings, boosting their positions in the Theme Team League.
It wasn’t enough though to topple Sing Your Last Song For Me from the top of the Theme Team League.
47 points was enough to take the take the title, with oldies theme team Old People Party Of 20 claiming the runners-up spot. But who won the big one?
The Living End Does It Again
Yes, congratulations goes out to The Living End who claim a second consecutive title and a record third overall. 2012 was less of a cake walk for the defending champion, the winning lead was comfortable but was only in the last month of the competition that victory was secured. Second place was a surprise. …..Norfolk & Good‘s previous form was nothing to write home about, but an inspired late run almost snatched the title away from TLE. The ever-improving ‘arry-Kiri makes the podium. The Living End will be the one to beat once again in 2013, but if this year’s intake is anything to go by, it could be his toughest defence yet…
Hits of the Year
With 187 hits, there was plenty to choose from. The most popular was Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, with 230 teams sharing the spoils. In what was the most dramatic day DDP-wise in May, Bee Gee Robin Gibb also joined the choir invisible and with a non too shabby 176 teams picking him, it was arguably the biggest scoring day in the whole history of the DDP. Back in February, Whitney Houston became the first “cover star” of the all-new DDP blog format, with her accidental death. Perhaps the most significant death outside the DDP competition bubble (but still a hit nonetheless) was that of Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon.
The List of the Missed had a busy year and we can count ourselves unlucky in missing out on Davy Jones, Earl Scruggs, Donna Summer, Victor Spinetti, Alistair Burnet, Dave Sexton and Norman Scwarzkopf among others. Then there were the ones that completely got away, such as journalist James Whittaker, author Maeve Binchy, film director Tony Scott, naturalist Terry Nutkins and Dr Who’s Mary Tamm and Caroline John. And I know from the submissions to this year’s competiton, Tony Greig was a big miss too…
Into 2013…
Early indications suggest that there will be even more competitors in 2013 and it’ll be fiercer with a fair sprinkling of teams eyeing the big prize. As to when the lists of teams will be up with the first score table (with already an early hit in 2013) is difficult at this stage to predict, but it should be much sooner than last year as I’m going to roll out the details of the new picks (DOB/Birthplace/Notes and so on) over an extended period rather than rush to get every detail up. So keep ’em peeled, as Shaw Taylor would say…
(Written by The Man in Black, 2nd January 2013)