Heef

I actually have some web access where I am galavanting, so if the need arises then I'm sure I can submit a team. What is the overall match situation summary. I'm pretty glad to have stuck with Merrill as I think she was in my original XI.

You're right. At the rate the 90s artists are dropping off, two of them'll probably be due this year. (good spotting)

That's it. I'm definitely going to select Dario G for next year's DDP team.

In a way, you're right. Women's sport in general and rugby league in general are both reasonably big things in NZ, but the combination of Women's Rugby League isn't quite so household as, say Women's Rugby Union. As such, her post-League conviction for mortgage fraud has outshone her residual fame for being a Women's League international. Similar in some ways to any sportsman who's been convicted for a crime bigger than their level of success in sport (lower league football players convicted for rape). There's also some cultural reasons why the conviction became big news in NZ (her Pakeha crime partner got off with home detention, whilst she got sent to prison) Anyway, I had heard of her as a League international before that, and it is (briefly) mentioned in some of the articles (e.g. the very end of this article http://m.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11856757), and there are articles on th'internet pre-conviction that you can find, albeit relatively light on detail (e.g. http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/sport-archived2/4264435/Ferns-boost-Counties-in-nationals-attempt ) But anyway, not after rorting the tournament, so I'll leave the decision to you. I have the feeling that she'll be my only hit of the round that DI doesn't have, so perhaps it would be a good thing for Earl Sinks to QO.

I assumed Vicki would be worth 3 points as a former NZ rugby league representative. Her death has certainly made headline news in NZ (even a breaking news banner on the main news site stuff.co.nz)

Heard that Robert Miles House/Electronica DJ has died in Ibiza. Can't find it on any English language news websites yet though so perhaps rumour.

Well, the only surprise is that it took until now.

Would have liked to spend more time on it, but all of my research this time around was compiled in Arthur's Pass village using some very shoddy rural wifi as the snows were sweeping in from the West Coast. Not ideal for in depth digging. I don't like copying picks from others, but when they sound like genuinely good picks, there's at least a bit of a blocking manoeuvre required from time to time. Best of luck, and well played to GUN. Certainly went down to the wire... Now I just hope GUN's no-longer-required line-up doesn't do better than mine. And looking at DI's line-up, I'd say I'm pretty screwed anyway, so I hope no one will mind that I've booked a five-week holiday starting about two weeks before the end of the round...

3 fixtures very close... Perhaps best not to mention the fourth. Anything can happen in the dying minutes of a Cup Quarter-Final. And even with a tweaked FFBI rule, wouldn't Kaye still be the youngest non-shared hit between GUN and I? Still, the DL equivalent of a penalty shoot-out is bound to jangle the nerves.

Crikey. DI is nailing the April instalment. Exceptional. I think I'll have to rethink my team substantially if I gain progress to the next round. I still think my scoring for the month (at least on picks that GUN doesn't have) is over. Two point lead is a good'un though. 11 days is a long time in the Deathpool Cup though.

Who cares? The Star Wars franchise as a whole is just a poor man's Battle Beyond the Stars.

Looks like Tony Kaye has passed away: http://www.theinformant.co.nz/racing/archive/2017/04/TY64695/Awapuni-horseman-Tony-Kaye-succumbs-to-cancer Also, I think someone had Moreno? http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39610937

Well, that's where obits come into play, surely? I struggle to see how someone like Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Sir Everton Weekes or Sir Colin Meads wouldn't be appropriate for a Knights of the Realm thing. They'd probably all obit in the UK as well as their homelands.

Kaye has taken a turn for the worse it seems. Sent home, can no longer speak and is basically having drugs pumped into him. Still think he'll see out the month, but if he does, well, it probably shouldn't be a unique for May perhaps.

As I understand though, it hasn't stopped him taking what seems to be water with a little bit of bleach added. MMMMMM. Bleach. Pass me another $200 bottle, puh-lease. In other Greats of New Zealand Rugby news, it sounds like Sir Brian Lochore has managed to get through two different bouts of cancer relatively unscathed. I think he's in his mid 70s by now, and I'd been wondering why he'd been out of the limelight for a while.

Dastardly Aussies. Sometimes claiming Kiwis as their own.

I suspect Tony Kaye will last until July-August now. Mind you, this update on his condition was dated 10th February "Hi guys. Update Tony was admitted to hospital this morning. He has had couple bad days. A ct scan was carried out and sadly the tumor has grown which was what w...as causing him to go down hill. Doctor has stated his life expectancy is a couple of months. Tony is doing as well as one can been given this horrible news. I have just sorted all the hospital stuff required for him to be comfortable at home. His bed arrives tomorrow. Do hopefully the doctors will let him come home tomorrow. Just another few bumps in n the road." All quite sudden for him. Very sad. I don't hold out many hopes with any of the other selections though.

Yep. 4 teams involved after all that. I'll post the teams up later today and we can all have a good chin wag over a cup of tea and our latest edition of Hello! who's going to win this come the end summary in ~20 months time.

It was a real ding dong battle. A match of two halves etc. etc. Unlucky. I thought you had the better team at the start.

Totally agree. Why the hell did anyone think of remaking Watership Down with modern liberal sensibilities, removing the basic premise that for such creatures like can be cruel, unkind and unfair. I think mollycoddled kids could learn a lot from watching the original Watership Down from the 70s. There's no need to mess with this stuff, leave it alone. It makes me glad that some authors refuse to let filmmakers tinker with their source material (e.g. Keri Hulme)

Still no more entries since last week. Deadline looming.

Yeah. Just when Kurt Seddon passed away, msc said something along the lines of such picks not being eligible next time. He still got an QO though. He was the headline on the main NZ news website for about half a day, but still a bit of a naff pick really.

I've heard Tom Keneally isn't the healthiest of men, but it really is a pot shot. I selected John Berger for my DDP team this year on a whim, really.

For the next round, are 'famous for being ill' people disallowed this time around? Or is that for the next iteration of the cup as a whole?

I only got David Storey's Saville out of the library on Tuesday. Funny how coincidences go. Looks like it hadn't been checked out since 2004. One of only 8 Bookers I've got left to read now. Currently working through Barry Unsworth's Sacred Hunger A good number of those Booker winners have died since 2012 - Unsworth, Brookner, Gordimer, Berger and now Storey. A good number of elderly authors left though - Byatt, Naipaul, Lively, Keneally. Recent winners have been a bit younger. Can't see DBC Pierre, Catton, Beattie, James or Flanagan.