Hello all, it is the beginning of my era as co-host as we enter another year of the DDP. The obits will start rolling in shortly, hopefully tomorrow. Most of the quicker ones have already been written and just need some finishing touches. But already a few heavyweights have died this year who deserve more than a paragraph!
As par the course for the early days of the DDP there is plenty of ironing out that needs to be done – already a mixup in Tony Browns has been spotted! The teams, scoreboard, and Drop 40 (Alagiah in first and Zeman in 40th – literal A-Z!) are all up, and thanks to Reptile’s brilliant work, changes to preexisting bios last year have carried over! No more of that generic greedy businessman bio for Trump. The new pick details are also in. Quite a few team details need updating, and the images for brand new picks, but again, that can wait.
We have some very welcome returns to our DDP fold with Pity da Foolz, The Man in Black (as The Sunday Supplement’s Premature Review of 2022), and Octopus of Odstock. A former winner, a former host, and both! Every host since 2008 is participating in the DDP this year. And of the winners from 2008 on, only two aren’t playing.
On the flipside, several DDP stalwarts have not entered this year. Three top-12 teams of last year haven’t reentered – promising upstart Bleaching the Bottom of the Barrel and consistent longtimers Poochie (who had his best ever placement last year to boot) and Still Life. But perhaps the saddest loss of all to our collective is that of Mr C, who did not enter for 2022 after participating for 21 years. It is a shame to see them go, and we wish them well in their lives.
My thanks to msc for his invaluable guidance and kind words in preparing me for my takeover, and to Reptile and GUN for their hard work with the data entry bits of the DDP.
Good luck to all!
DI