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 since from 2010 to 2017 by The Man In Black...

Latest Stiffs: 4th July 2017 by The Man in Black

Half-way through the year and finally the DDP stats & facts covering till the end of the record-smashing 2016 is up, with a few categories dropped and others added, such as some Theme Team stats...

Na na na na Hey Hey Hey Goodbye!

Gary DeCarlo was the lead singer of the sort-of band Steam (really a loose collective of musicians and producers) who co-wrote and sang their only (and massive) hit single 'Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye', which reached number 1 on the US Billboard charts late in 1969. The song was later covered by 80s girl band Bananarama. DeCarlo was 75 and was a unique hit for The B-Team, who are doing a better job of it than The Love Boat, the "main" team for Theme Team League runaway leader Shameless which itself is doing even better in 7th place. Still, only half-time as they say...
Michael Bond was a childrens author whose most famous creation was the adoptee Peruvian bear Paddington, which became a huge success after the first novel was published in 1958, leading to a memorable cartoon series narrated by Michael Hordern and later a film, with the little bear voiced by Ben Wishaw. Bond also created the animated adventures of 'The Herbs' in 1968, which became a bit of a cult amongst those of a certain age. Bond was 91 and a hit for three teams, who will no doubt celebrate with a jar of marmalade...
Simone Veil survived the Auschwitz concentration camp in World War 2 to become a prominent female politician in France. Veil served as Minister for Health under President Giscard d'Estaing from 1974-79, ushering in the Abortion bill in 1975. Veil later served as President of the European Parliament before returning to the Health portfolio under Mitterand (or more accurately for PM Édouard Balladur) in 1993.
Veil was 89 and a hit for three teams, with The Midtable Maulers getting the joker points to lift them to er, mid-table!

(DeCarlo) + = 10pts

(Bond) (3 teams) = 5pts

(Veil) (3 teams)= 6pts (1 team) = 12pts

kobayishibashiboshi!

Mao Kobayashi was a Japanese actress and TV presenter. She made a few appearances in dramas but was better known as a weathercaster. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014 and subsequently wrote an "inspirational" blog. Kobyashi died aged 34 and was a hit for 4 teams with Still Life clinching the joker and 2nd place, making them a definite contender for 2017 after finishing just inside the top 40 last year.
Jose Manuel Mourinho Felix was a Portuguese footballer, who played in goal for Vitória Setúbal and Belenenses in a near 20 year career. He won 1 cap for the national side in 1972. He later became a coach, but that career was to be massively overshadowed by the coaching success of his son, Jose Mourinho. He was 79 and a unique hit for Diana Rots.
Edwina Davies is one of those periodic hits filed under Family. Her daughter, Carol Vorderman is a famous TV personality of 'Countdown' and Rear-of-the-Year fame.
Davies was 88 although confusingly she is known also as Jean Vorderman, but Dead Loss, the only team to pick her, had her down as Davies so there you have it...

(Veil) (4 teams)= 10pts (1 team) = 20pts

(Mourinho Felix) + = 10pts

(Davies) + = 9pts

Latest Stiffs: 22nd June 2017 by The Man in Black

Well, he got the date right at least...

Welcome to the host with the most (titles)...

So now the offical announcement. I have decided to quit hosting the Derby Dead Pool. After 7 years, I feel I have done all I can and I can be proud of the way the site and competition has evolved in my time as organiser. But the game goes on and we have a new host to take on the mantle and it's a familiar name. Yes, the Four-time champion David Quantick's Showbiz Pals has decided to take the challenge and lead the DDP into a 4th decade. Here's what he had to say:

As a four-time DDP champion I am in awe of the effort TMIB has put into ensuring this pastime of ours has a site that remains up-to-date, accurate and allows us to truly marvel at strangers' ability to route out mothers with terminal cancer. TMIB has earned a well-deserved rest from maintaining the DDP, and I am only too happy to temporarily retire from deadpooling to run the contest in his absence. Anything I or any future game-runner achieves here is based on his energy and dedication, and I can only hope to match up to the standards he has set. After I win my fifth title in December.

Thank you David! DQSP makes history as the first previous winner to take up the duty of host...

The Play School clock stops for Cant

Actor/presenter Brian Cant has died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. Can earned his place in British children's television folklore with his regular appearances in the pre-school TV show 'Play School', which started in 1964. By 1967, Cant was the voice of the "Trumptonshire Trilogy" of animated series, starting with 'Camberwick Green', followed by 'Trumpton' and then 'Chigley', all created by Gordon Murray. From 1971-84, Cant was the star turn in the 'Play School' entertainment spin-off 'Play Away', which featured the likes of Derek Griffiths, Floella Benjamin, Johnny Ball (I'm misting up as I'm writing this!) and even future Oscar-winner Jeremy Irons! A total and utter legend, Cant died aged 83 and was a hit for 6 teams. Who's going to break the news to Big Ted?

(6 teams) = 6pts

Mouldy King Kohl

Helmut Kohl dominated German politics for over two decades as Chairman of the centre-right CDU and then as Chancellor of West Germany, a role he took in dramatic fashion in 1982, when the liberal FDP switched coalitions from Helmut Schmidt's SPD. Kohl cemented his power with election wins in 1983 and 1987. When the Berlin Wall fell late in 1989, Kohl pressed decisively for a reunification with East Germany and so it came to pass that a united Germany was formed in 1990. Kohl enjoyed an unlikely political friendship with the wily French president Francois Mitterand (the DDP's first ever hit, fact fans!) and the two pushed for ever closer union within Europe with the introduction of the Euro a key part of this. Kohl was finally defeated by Gerhard Schröder's SPD in 1998 and post-retirement, Kohl's reputation was tainted with both a political finance scandal and revelations about his domestic life. Kohl was 87 and a hit for 16 teams with two teams banking joker points.

(16 teams) = 6pts (2 teams) = 12pts

Die, Fawkes

Helen Fawkes was a BBC journalist who documented on the web a long battle with cancer, which not surprisingly caught the attention of a few teams. She chalked off a fair few achievements on her "bucket list" (although getting into the Drop 40 for a couple of years probably wasn't one of them!). Fawkes died aged 44 and although she didn't make the D40 this year, she was nonetheless a hit for 33 teams (including Mr C's first for 2017), with Bloody Dead Rep claiming the joker.
Another key pick to fall was Paul Van-Zandvliet. Van-Zandvliet played Rugby Union for the Newcastle Falcons, winning the Premiership title with them in 1998. Van-Zandvliet was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016 and died aged 50. Eight teams picked him, with Golden Slumbers consolidating his place at the top and Thomas Jefferson Survives continuing his good run of form, pushing DDP Host-elect DQSP into 3rd place.
Bill Dana was a US comedy performer who found fame with his comedy character 'Jose Jimenez', a parody of a Latino-American. Although adopted as an icon by the Latino community, even by 1970 this act was considered a little politically incorrect and Dana retired the character. Dana was a comedy writer behind the scenes, contributing to 'All in the Family' and 'The Steve Allen Show' amongst others. Dana was 92 and a hit for two teams.
Now a hit from May. Gholamreza Pahlavi was the half-brother of the last Shah of Iran and served as Lieutenant General and as President of Iranian Olympic Committee in the ancien régime before exiling himself to Paris, France during the Iranian Revolution of 1979. He died on 7th May aged 93 and there was a little wait before the Times came up with the vital obit, a unique hit for theme team List of the Last.

(Fawkes) (33 teams) = 10pts (1 team) = 20pts

(Van-Zandvliet) (8 teams) = 9pts

(Dana) (2 teams) = 5pts

(Pahlavi) + = 8pts

Latest Stiffs: 12th June 2017 by The Man in Black

[Picture of Roy Barraclough, Wallace (AKA Peter Sallis & Batman]

BIFF! BAM! POW!

Holy obits batman!

Actor Adam West has died. West played "The Caped Crusader" in the 'Batman' TV series from 1966-1968. Its camp, pop art style perfectly matched the groovy Sixties, with West teaming up with Burt Ward as Robin, his "chum". The dynamic duo fought off the likes of the Joker and the Penguin for 120 episodes and became icons. But life after Gotham was tough for West as he found it hard to shake off the cape. West though later voiced a cartoon version of himself as the meglomaniac Mayor of Quahog in the cult series 'Family Guy'.
West was 88 and a hit for 12 teams.

(12 teams) = 6pts

Sallis's final Grand Day Out

Peter Sallis was a familiar face on British TV for many years, mainly for his role as the laconic, diffident Norman Clegg in the long-running sitcom 'Last of the Summer Wine', appearing in all 295 episodes from 1973-2010. But in later years, he captured childrens (and adults) imaginations as the voice of the hapless inventor Wallace in the 'Wallace and Gromit' series of Oscar-winning Aardman animated films.
Sallis was 96 and a Drop 40 entrant with 70 teams scoring and it's another hit for the DDP's founder Big-Iain (aptly enough) getting a joker...
Another Drop 40 causes a little re-jig of the top ten. Errol Christie was a British middleweight boxer. After a fine amateur career, Christie's professional life was less successful and was effectively ended in 1990 with defeat to the then rising Michael Watson. Christie later became a "white collar boxing" trainer. Christie died of lung cancer aged 53. Placed =16th in the Drop 40, he was a hit for 73 teams, including leader Golden Slumbers who stays ahead but is yet to deliver the knockout blow in this championship...

(Sallis) + (70 teams)= 8pts (4 teams) = 16pts

(Christie) + (73 teams)= 12pts (10 teams) = 24pts

Last orders for Barraclough

Roy Barraclough was a British character actor who formed a memorable drag double act with the legendary comic Les Dawson in a series of sketches for the latter's TV series in the 1970s and 80s. "Cissie and Ada" were two gossipy Northern women, with Barraclough's Cissie the prim, up-herself stooge to Dawson's brusque battleaxe Ada. Barraclough later found fame as the scheming, mean-spirited Rovers Return Landlord Alec Gilroy in 'Coronation Street', forming a memorable partnership with the pub's doyen Bet, played by Julie Goodyear. His last role was as the dithering Mr Grainger in the one-off revival of 'Are You Being Served?'. Barraclough was 81 and a unique hit for theme team The Cobbles To A Coffin.
Julia Perez was an Indonesian actress who suffered from cerival cancer and there's nothing much more to say other than that the Mirror have considered her worthy enough to get an obit. Well, they all count. She was 36 and a hit for two teams, with Thomas Jefferson Survives storming back into the top three.
Roberto De Vicenzo was an Argentinian golf professional who became the first from his country win a Major, capturing the Open Golf Championship at Hoylake in 1967. He could have won the US Masters the following year, but an error in scoring denied him a chance at a playoff with winner Bob Goalby. Doh! He was 94 and a hit for another couple of theme teams.

(Barraclough) + = 9pts

(Perez) (2 teams) = 10pts

(De Vicenzo) (2 teams) = 5pts

List of the Lost - Latest Entrants

Eva Estrada Kalaw, Vicki Letele, Bill Woodson, Keith Farnham, Zoltan Sarosy, Dave Rosser

List of the Missed - Latest Entrants

Tankred Dorst, Patricia Knatchbull, John G. Avildsen, Noel Kinsey, Barry Norman :(

Player of the Month - May

Come Die With Me, God's Christmas Selection Box, Mortem Omnibus, Old Lags And Old Slags and The Greatest Serial Killers Living Today - 20 points

Latest News

Tosspot leaders Donald Trump and Kim Jong-Un seem determined to goad each other into starting World War Three...
The Theme Team League is updated for July with defending champion Shameless still puffing away on that cigar...

Further Information

Rules & Scoring

E-mail The Man In Black with any questions/comments about the DDP: ddp2017@derbydeadpool.co.uk

Links

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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