David Quantick – Champion. Doesn’t he look delighted about it?
2013 – A Twerk of Fate
OK so it wasn’t the David Quantick that has won the 2013 Derby Dead Pool Death Prediction Championship of the World. Some will be wondering on who the hell David Quantick is anyway! But nevertheless, his name at least has become a little bit of DDP history as David Quantick’s Showbiz Pals overcame all the rest and won with a superb new record of 15 hits. That’s a 75% hit rate. However there are some last bits of business to get through first…
There were a couple of deaths over a quiet Xmas period. Marie Fleming was an Irish “right to die” campaigner who suffered from MS. She died on December 20th aged 59, a unique hit for The Newstreet Boys Death Squad. The last death of 2013 was on Boxing Day, that of actress and operetta singer Marta Eggerth, who died aged 101. Obituaries ‘R’ Us also get a unique hit. Well they do say that it isn’t over ’till the fat lady sings! But it could have been the fat man that would have had the last word on 2013. Unfortunately, ‘The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air’ actor James Avery‘s death on New Year’s Eve wasn’t reported until the following day, so no points…
Quantick the record breaker!
Yes, congratulations goes out to David Quantick’s Showbiz Pals who win their first title in spectacular fashion, storming to victory with a late run of hits in December (3 hits in 18 days) to overtake Octopus of Odstock, leader for much of the year, with just two weeks remaining. Crossing The Styx‘s switch from a theme team was an inspired choice, landing them 3rd place with 101 points, first time that three figures were scored by three teams in any one year. Indeed it was a record breaking year once again, with most hits overall (219), 530 scoring teams and a high quality field (80 points and 9 hits only enough to get a team into the top 20). The standard was excellent in what was a close contest, the best since I took over duties in 2010. The winner of the Theme Team League was newcomer The British (D)i(e)sles with an excellent return of 57 points from 8 hits (=60th overall), so well done to them…
Hits of the Year
Overall it was quite a year for celebrity deaths, with two massive (in every sense of the word) hits in Margaret Thatcher and Nelson Mandela with a combined total of 531 teams picking them, with Nelson edging Thatch to become the biggest hit ever (267 teams).
Those politically iconic hits dominated 2013, a year that curiously didn’t have any big name US hits…
There was a packed List of the Missed, with teams missing out on Nagisa Oshima, Peter Gilmore, Mindy McCready, Elmore Leonard, Seamus Heaney, Tom Clancy, Lou Reed, Sir John Taverner and John Cole amongst others. Some of those we didn’t reckon on in the first place included ‘Sopranos’ star James Gandolfini, football commentator Tony Gubba, Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek, novelist Iain Banks, boxer Ken Norton, actresss Karen Black and right at the end of the year, satirist John Fortune.
Into 2014…
Such is the highly competitive nature of the DDP these days, there has already been a hit and we’re just one day into 2014! Suffice to say there will be time (but not too long) before the lists/rosters/whatever will be published to the coming year (as of last year, info on the new candidates will be rolled out) and as we know, some mighty big hits could be around the corner to give the new year a cracking start. See you all soon…
Written by The Man in Black on 2nd January 2014.