Death happens. Why not make it interesting?
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. Other hosts: Siegfried Baboon and Rude Kid (2003-7), Octopus of Odstock (2008-9, first tenure), The Man in Black (2010-17), Spade Cooley (2018-19), msc (2020-21), Grim Up North (2020-22), Reptile (2020-23), and Death Impends (2022-2025). Now the Committee of Banana (2023), time (2024), the returning Octopus of Odstock (2026) and the deadpooling equivalent of a gap year temp Marlfox (2026) oversee the biggest deadpool going...
REAPER DEXTEROUS Cricketer Ted Dexter has died aged 86. A right handed batsman, Dexter was captain of the England cricket team in the 1960s. He was nicknamed Lord Ted for his aloof and self-assure nature, on and off the crease. At school he beat up Peter Cook. At cricket he thrashed South Africa and others. […]
ROSES ON HIS GRAVE Charlie Watts, legendary drummer of The Rolling Stones, has died after a short hospital stay aged 80. Widely respected as one of the greatest drummers in rock history, Watts joined The Stones in 1963 and was a mainstay and cornerstone of their success for nearly the next 60 years. An early […]
BLACKADDER GOES FORTH Scottish artist Elizabeth Blackadder has died just short of her 90th birthday. The first woman ever elected to the Royal Academy, she was known for her cunning plans, her still life paintings, her use of oil paints, her association with Lord Melchett and Baldrick, and her landscape drawings. Her art can be […]
RIVERS CROSSED Co-founder of insanely popular 1980s British reggae inspired band UB40, Brian Travers has died of cancer. Saxophonist Travers was part of the group when it formed in 1978, and played for them for over 40 years until brain cancer hit. UB40 were named after the unemployment benefit attendance card of the time. Heavily […]
GONE GONE GONE The surviving half of the Everly Brothers, Don, has made the opening of this sentence no longer accurate aged 84. The Everly Brothers had 11 number one singles in the US, and four number ones in the UK, only narrowly beaten by Elvis Presley for a 5th in 1965 with The Price […]
GOODBYE VIETNAM Singer-songwriter Tom T Hall has died aged 85. He wrote 1968 country hit single Harper Valley PTA, which reached number 1 on the US billboard Hot 100, and well as the Australian charts, and even made 12 in the UK charts. Overall, Hall wrote 12 US number one songs. Johnny Wright’s use of […]
STREET FIGHTER FATALITY Japanese actor Sonny Chiba has died aged 82. The karate black belt was a martial arts expert and regular in Japanese film before The Street Fighter became internationally renowned. He became a regular in cult Asian made films of the 1970s on, and in 2003 he appeared as expert sword craftsman Hanzo […]
BUDGET SURPLUS EXPERT MEETS LIFE DEFICIT. New Zealand politician Michael Cullen has died of lung cancer aged 76. Deputy Prime Minister from 2002 to 2008, Cullen was the New Zealand version of John Prescott: a left wing bruiser who had a habit of drawing attention to policies the government didn’t want attention drawn towards. […]
American baseball player Bill Freehan has died after a long battle with dementia aged 79. Freehan played 15 seasons with the Detroit Tiges, during which time he helped them roar to the 1968 World Series title. With 200 home runs under his belt, and holding the highest fielding percentage record for over 30 years, Freehan […]
So yes, the modern Derby Dead Pool relies on a constant stream of fresh energy to keep it going, and after 2 years, mine is starting to run out. If The Man in Black taught us anything, its that 7 years in charge of any part of the DDP is far too much, and the […]
