Literature
First up we have Mary de Rachewiltz, a poet and translator who learned the trade first-hand from her father, Ezra Pound. Fortunately, she didn’t follow in his footsteps with the raging fascism he was also well known for. She penned many works in Italian in her own right, and published an award-winning translation of her fathers famous epic The Cantos in the 1980’s. Clinging to a 101 claim the aptly-aged 101 year old for eight points.
Politics
The 12th Marquess of Queensberry David Douglas has joined the previous 11 in the family mausoleum at the age of 96. His political career started in 1963 when they let holders of Scottish peerages into the House of Lords, though he was one of the ones booted out again by Blair in 1999. He was also big on designing teapots if that’s your thing. A unique pick for longstanding veteran Obituarynotice gets nine points.
Science
A sore one for me as Gunther von Hagens finally kicks the bucket after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. Six years in a row I picked the fedora-clad anatomist and I clearly doomed him by forgetting to put him on this year. He’s most famous for developing plastination, a process of preserving organic matter by replacing the squishy bits with plastics. By the 1990’s entire bodies were capable of being preserved in all manner of poses and levels of dissection. He soon realized there was a commercial opportunity to be found and launched Body World, a series of public exhibitions dedicated to all things anatomy.
He frequently courted controversy, acquiring subjects from somewhat morally dubious sources and he was often accused of blurring the line between education and sensationalism. If all goes to plan however, it’s not the last we’ll be seeing of him. He was on record as wanting to be plastinated himself and put on display to welcome future visitors to Body World. Now resting in both peace and plastic, he leaves six points behind for four teams.
Television and Radio
Bill Oddie first came to fame as one third of the comedy troupe The Goodies in the 1970’s before moving into nature programs later in life. A lifelong birdwatcher and regular talking head on the likes of Wild in Your Garden, Springwatch and Autumnwatch, he was as much away with the birds as watching them at times. He rather grumpily declined an invitation for This is Your Life in 2001 and his lifelong struggle with mental health took a turn for the worse from 2008 onwards after he was dropped by the BBC. Eight teams cash in on the bearded birdwatcher, with Final Curtain Call getting a joker for their first twelve points of the year.
Our other small screen star from years gone by was Rainbow’s Zippy operator, Ronnie Le Drew. The puppeteer worked wonders alongside the voice actor Roy Skelton to bring the entitled little shit of the famous children’s quartet to life, and also had roles in Labryinth, Little Shop of Horrors and The Muppet Christmas Carol. Passing away at 78 and as a unique joker to boot, he provides a pot of dead pooling gold at the end of the rainbow for Bucket O’Hare for 22 points.
Sport
We sign off with AC Milan club legend and captain Franco Baresi, one of the all time great central defenders. With his career spanning a golden age for Italian football, his final trophy count included three of the Champions League, six of Serie A, and a further eight domestic and international club cups. He was also named to the 1982 FIFA World Cup winning Italy side, though never made it off the bench in that campaign.
Baresi later went into an entirely unremarkable coaching and corporate career, around about the time Italian football became mired in corruption scandals. Not one to miss out on this, he was convicted of money laundering in 2005 after being a bit naughty with the financial declarations of some fine art sales but he learned his lesson and paid a fine to make it right again! The Tuttosport newspaper jumped the gun with a premature report of his death on the 29th and despite furious denials by AC Milan he did in fact pop his clogs just two days later at the age of 82. He’s the second unique hit of the year for Free Fallers’ and scores them twelve points.
Scores
| Name | Age | Date of Death | Teams and Scores |
| David Douglas | 96 | July 22 | Obituarynotice 💀💀💀💀💀+👻 = 9 Points |
| Mary de Rachewiltz | 101 | July 24 | Clinging to a 101 💀💀💀💀+👻 = 8 Points |
| Gunther von Hagens | 81 | July 24 | 4 Teams💀💀💀💀💀💀 = 6 Points |
| Bill Oddie | 85 | July 25 | 7 Teams 💀💀💀💀💀💀 = 6 Points Final Curtain Call 🃏 = 12 Points |
| Ronnie Le Drew | 78 | July 26 | Bucket O’Hare 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀+👻+🃏 = 22 Points |
| Franco Baresi | 82 | July 31 | Free Fallers’ 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀+👻= 12 points |