RoverAndOut

If it makes people feel better, I'm pretty sure I've failed to get 3 unique picks in total on either of the first two games and still have a win to my name! This game is really unpredictable. In other news, if the turmoil continues have we all missed a potential success in the Nobel winners..? Belarus: Nobel Laureate Alexievich visited by diplomats amid 'harassment' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-54079337

I don't see a precedent being set, surely it's personal choice? Will Young was disappointed a couple of seasons ago he couldn't dance with a man. Susan Calman specifically requested that she not be paired with a woman (mainly because she hoped to dance with Kevin from Grimsby and got her wish). Nicola Adams was approached to star and said she would like to dance with a woman, something that has been mooted for a couple of years and here we are, I don't think she forced anything. Also, it's not a requirement in the future, just an option - gay stars will presumably get a choice of partner. I also think you may be surprised how she does, but while it's never *just* about the dancing, it certainly plays a part: if she's awful, she'll go early, if she's decent, her personality and decision (because she'll get plenty of support from the gay community for this I'd imagine) may get her a fair way, same as most of them.

First error has popped up in Nobel Prize Winners @Bibliogryphon - I think Chilean Way has 6 picks and Dying Probably only 4, is one a typo? Sorry, first two categories were bang on!

Yeah, she said she wrote to him to take part but he failed to reply. I assume she checked to make sure he wasn't dead before she wrote it...

Undoubtedly the hoax tape was a huge issue, but it wasn't as though it was a convincing hoax. The tape contained no information that wasn't in the public domain and there was no obvious connection for the killer to Wearside. The press told the officers in charge it wasn't true, the FBI officers they were liaising with asked if they realised the tape was a hoax and the Northumbria Police questioned why they believed the tape was genuine given it contained no classified information on the victims. George Oldfield became so fixated on this fictitious duel with the Ripper that he was blinded to any other lines of enquiry. Apparently, Sutcliffe himself said after his capture that the tape made him feel safe as the accent didn't match his own. Even the bloke who sent it, Jack Humble, was shocked at how seriously the police took it - he sent a letter telling them it was a hoax and then a follow-up anonymous phone call saying the same thing but they were ignored. Not defending him, he deserved everything he got when they caught up with him, but hoax claims of responsibility aren't unusual, especially in big cases, what was unusual in this case was just how easily those in charge were taken in by it. Oh, and I too only discovered we had a new Poet Laureate after Maryport's message.

Watched all 3 parts of this in the past week, having missed it last year. Although I'm familiar with the case, it predates me by a few years and I wasn't aware of the length of time he was at large or the hysteria he instilled. Absolutely terrifying, but what became clear was that West Yorkshire Police were criminally incompetent throughout, seeking to paint all the women in the worst possible light, taken in by a hoax tape and missing or failing to follow up on vital evidence. I don't tar all police with this brush, the head of Northumbria Police (home of Wearside Jack) had great misgivings on the veracity of the tape and its lack of inside information and the South Yorkshire Police in Sheffield who checked his number plate, realised it was fake, pulled him over and, having arrested him for soliciting, then went back and discovered the hammer and knife he had dropped, deserve immense credit - when asked how they'd caught him, he remarked to the press 'good old-fashioned coppering'. (I am of course aware that South Yorks would have their own date with disgrace a decade later when Hillsborough happened.) Really interesting watch though: 'The Yorkshire Ripper Files', available on BBC iPlayer if you're so inclined.

Well that's one unique out the window straight away...

Which one's me and which one's you? Because clearly it wasn't Bentrovato's fault...

Well that escalated unnecessarily quickly. You mentioned that as though it was her claim to fame. Let me re-phrase your post to make sense: Slightly left-field, but a quick search shows a few of you have her on your lists, Renee Simonot, the mother of Catherine Deneuve, had a nice mention on Paul Sinha's General Knowledge on Radio 4 earlier this week. Apparently she was the voice of O De H's early films - she's 108 and going well! Just mentioning in passing. There, that wasn't so difficult was it? And not an insult in sight...

Finally submitted a team for my own picks, mainly to stop me umming and ahing over the weekend! How many times will I kick myself over the next 18 months I wonder...

I can read and I still don't know the context that she was mentioned in. Did Paul Sinha say "Renee Simonot is at death's door"? Or "Renee Simonot is the fittest 108 year-old the world has ever seen"? Or just "Renee Simonot is Catherine Deneuve's mother and is still going at 108"? They could all be "mentions in passing" but provide very different contexts... Or was the mention simply that she dubbed Olivia's early films? Because that wasn't clear from your OP.

I'm trying to work out if you knew something we didn't, but as far as I can see no big publicity health issues, just an old astronaut? In which case, that's bloody bad luck - a unique on day 1 would have been quite a start! I am still intending to enter a team by Monday - I'm just hoping some inspiration strikes me to pick the right random names from the lists I can't pick decent bets for. Experience in this deadpool has taught me that just picking 5 old guys (or gals) is a mug's game.

Ha, One True Voice. Blown out of the water for Christmas Number 1 and disappeared.

Just in the interest of correctness, she's 38, not 36 - she's 39 in November. I didn't watch it but I seem to recall the necessary controversy that season was that she got the final place in Girls Aloud instead of Javine, who was seen as the best singer on the show? Girls Aloud had 20 top 10 hits in the UK, Javine represented the UK at Eurovision in 2005. Sliding doors and all that...

I'm obviously taking on my own challenge. Teams are coming together, research mostly done, but it'll be the usual case of throwing it all up in the air and seeing how it lands.

@YoungWillz will be pleased you posted this.

Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel has fallen 30 feet from a bridge in the Il Lombardia race in Italy. Multiple injuries in hospital but alive and conscious throughout. He is from the same team as Jakobsen. https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/lefevere-evenepoel-is-alive-nothing-else-matters/

Hard to tell on a webcam to be honest. Sounded ok and always looked a bit dishevelled in the commentary box truth be told. Looking back at photos on Google maybe a bit thin? But odd angle on a webcam. This was him on GMB in 2017.

Do you know something about this round that I don't YW...?

Programme date stamp at the end of the closing credits is 2019 (MMIX) so one would assume around a year ago?

Just to say, in the seemingly the most appropriate thread, that Walter Mondale made a brief, unexpected appearance on Episode 2 of the BBC documentary 'Castro vs the World' and seemed in fine health for a 92 year old. Spoke well, clearly got all his marbles at the moment and looked healthy enough. Doesn't look like he's suffered any lasting effects from the bloody nose Reagan gave him in the 1984 election. Around the 8-minute mark if you want to check it out (but I do warn you, it's only a couple of sentences): https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08llzqj/cuba-castro-vs-the-world-series-1-2-the-charm-offensive

Don't be giving him ideas, that would be a new way to try and seed interest in his non-tension eliminations. "The act leaving the X Factor and going straight to the gulag is........................................................................Rak Su!" (I googled the band name...)

Similar thing for me. I was never really into any of those shows (bar being blown away by Leona Lewis when she won) but my ex girlfriend used to watch it - I was done the year he absolutely pilloried Jedward week after week and then, when they were in the bottom two, he sent home a young jazz singer called Lucie Jones because he thought she was a bit boring. Clear then that any pretence at a singing competition was done, it was all about headlines and ratings and over a decade later, he's still trying to flog the same dead horse and ITV keep letting him do it.

I'd be more open to believing this if we had the undoctored footage alongside it too. Strikes me as unlikely that wouldn't have been picked up in any of the actual footage.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53696420 Neil Cox appointed Scunthorpe's new manager - no more Russ Wilcox!