The Derby Dead Pool

The online competition to guess which famous people won't make it to the end of the current year. If they're elderly, ill, or just live a high-risk lifestyle, stick 'em in your team, and for each one whose death you correctly predict, you'll score points. DDP was dreamt up in Derby, England (hence the name...) by Big-Iain back in 1996, then was run from 2003 to 2007 by Siegfried Baboon and Rude Kid. From 2008 to 2009, it was run by Octopus of Odstock, and from 2010 The Man in Black. 2016 marks the Twentieth Anniversary!

Latest Stiffs: 3rd October 2016 by The Man in Black

Arnie gets in the swing

The King is dead...

Before we get on to the main business, some news about next year. For the first time since 2007, there will be a change to the points classification. From next year, the Unlucky 13 bonus will be dropped in a favour of a 3 point bonus for choosing a pick which will feature in the Drop Forty, adding a bit of meaning to the list of the 40 most popular picks, which has been a feature of the DDP for the last few years. So the Drop Forty will no longer be just decoration. At present, there is unlikely to be any other changes. I have a plan in the future to alter the scoring for the Theme Team League but that will require a bit more work on the technicalities first, so I'm deferring that until 2018, if I continue as host of course...

Arnold Palmer was one of the most successful golfers of the 1960s, winning The Open championship in consecutive years (1961, 62) as well as four US Masters titles and the US Open in 1960. Palmer was one of the first golfers to commercially exploit his sporting success, with a series of branded endorsements (there's even a drink named after him) as well designing over 300 courses. One golf's first modern superstars holed out at 87 on the eve of the US team regaining the Ryder Cup over Europe, with five teams marking their cards.

(5 teams) = 6pts

Shame for Shimon

Politician Shimon Peres has died aged 93. Peres was one of the founding fathers of the state of Israel in 1948. Born in Poland (although now part of Belarus), Peres was a member of David Ben Gurion's first Israeli government and served as leader of the Labour Party, Prime Minister and later President, serving from 2007 to 2014. In 1994, Peres jointly won the Nobel Peace Prize with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin for their efforts in securing peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, a process as well know rumbles uneasily along. Peres was a hit for nine teams, with The Buckley Mystic getting double points and their first ever hit.

(9 teams) = 7pts (1 team) = 10pts

Times up for the ancient Marriner

Sir Neville Marriner was one of Britian's leading conductors and violinists, forming the chamber orchestra Academy of St Martin in the Fields from within the London Symphony Orchestra. He later recorded the multi-million selling soundtrack to Milos Foreman's hit film 'Amadeus' in 1984. Marriner was 92 and was a hit for 2 teams. Footballer David Herd was a striker for Manchester United in the 1960s. Bought from Arsenal in 1961 as part of Sir Matt Busby's rebuilding of the team following the tragic air crash at Munich in 1958, Herd scored an impressive 145 goals for the club, including a brace in the 1963 FA Cup final against Leicester City as well as winning two league titles, in 1965 and 1967, although he was left out of United's historic first European Cup win the following year. Herd died aged 82 and was a unique hit for theme team 20 Names 20 Sports. Miriam Defensor Santiago was a Filipino politician who sought the presidency on three occasions. Known for her feisty style, Santiago even went up for election this year, despite suffering from ill health and insisting that she was fit for office. Something for another prominent presidential candidate this year to chew on perhaps! Santiago was 71 and a hit for a brace of teams, with Poochie Died On The Way Back To His Home Planet on their way into the top ten. Agnes Nixon was a US TV producer, specialising in daytime soaps. She created the long-running series' 'One Life to Live' and 'All My Children' which both ran for over 40 years. She had just completed her memoirs before passing away aged 93. Ho's Before Bro's gets a unique hit.

(Marriner) (2 teams) = 5pts

(Herd) + = 9pts

(Santiago) (2 teams) = 7pts

(Nixon) + = 8pts

Latest Stiffs: 19th September 2016 by The Man in Black

Albee damned!

Summer's over but the deaths continue... Edward Albee was a triple Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who burst onto the Broadway scene in 1963 with the Tony Award-winning 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?', which was later made into a film starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Considering that the play was about a disintegrating marriage, a somewhat apposite piece of casting! Albee continued writing into his seventies and was considered America's foremost living literary figure until of course, he lived no more at the age of 88. Two teams score points, with IBetYouWon'tPrintCunt getting the credit for the pun too! Carlo Azeglio Ciampi pretty much ran the gamut of Italian politics in the late twentieth century, taking on the top jobs of Governor of the Bank of Italy (1979-1993), Prime Minister (1993-94) and finally President from 1999-2006. He was a key supporter of the Euro, which is something Great Britain doesn't have to worry about any more! Ciampi was 95 and a hit for four teams. Prince Buster was a pioneering Jamaican musician, whose shuffling "ska" music influenced a generation of British post-punk bands such as The Specials, The Beat, Madness and The Selecter amongst others. His biggest UK hit came over decade before. 'Al Capone' reached the top 20 in 1967, with the Specials effectively sampling it for their 1979 debut single 'Gangsters'. Buster was 78 and a hit for three teams. Just don't call him Scarface... Now another hit from August. Abu Muhammad Al-Adnani was one of the many disposable leaders of the "so-called Islamic State" involved in their never-ending war in Syria. Al-Adnani was killed by US forces. However, considering the propaganda war going on, it's often difficult to establish who has died or who hasn't. For instance, another terrorist Abu Omar Al-Shishani was killed in July according to ISIS, but the US changed their minds on confirming his demise, so we're left in limbo with that one! As for Al-Adnani he is officially dead at around 38 years of age. Two teams win the points, with The Grim Actuary snatching the player of the month award in the process...

(Albee) (2 teams) = 6pts

(Ciampi) (3 teams) = 5pts

(Buster) (3 teams) = 7pts

(Al-Adnani) + = 13pts

List of the Lost - Latest Entrants

Yang Jingnian, Lindsay Tuckett, Clare Atkinson, Jackie Storrar, Clarence Brooks, Bill Glassford

List of the Missed - Latest Entrants

Eric "Lord Littlebrook" Tovey, Rose Mofford, Gérard Louis-Dreyfus, Gordon Guthrie, Peter Leo Gerety, John D Loudermilk, Karam Chand

Player of the Month - August

The Grim Actuary - 17 points

Latest News

Python legend Terry Jones announces he has severe dementia. Say no more :( The Theme Team League is updated for September with Shameless still comfortably ahead...

Message to all current competitors: There will be no more regular emails except in certain circumstances, such as rules and invitation to next year's competition.

Further Information

Derby Dead Pool is hosted by The Man In Black with contributions from Big-Iain, Rude Kid, Siegfried Baboon, Octopus of Odstock, WEP 2.0 - World's Eternity Prophet Reloaded, The Grey Horde, Thomas Jefferson Survives, Bibliogryphon, David Quantick's Showbiz Pals, Dickie's Gone the Way of the Dinosaurs & The End Of The World As We Know It

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