themaninblack

More a new lick of paint than anything radical. Soon now...

No unlucky 13 bonus of course...

Well Donald Trump is in it for a kick off!

The teams will be posted up tomorrow night! Friday 13th...an appropriate beginning, I think... There's just one more thing I want to do. I'm going to put news of some of the more controversial picks, when they inevitably drop on a separate, linked page called The Obituary Vault. I'm going to work on that right now...

The Starman himself, David Bowie, died one year ago today aged 69...

Fingers crossed, sometime this week...

Oh yeah...I forgot about that!

As for 2017, I have registered all the teams. All that there needs to be done is the coding but we've still got a bit to go. 538 teams this year, no doubt helped by a spike post Xmas as before chrimbo, numbers were looking a bit down on recent years. Nearly 900 new names, over 120 new teams. Big issue for me in 2017 is to do a tip-to-toe assessment of the whole database but I won't let that get in the way of getting the teams/celebs for 2017 up as quickly as possible. 12,000 names - it's getting unwieldy and as for the pics! Edit: 537 teams. I counted one twice!

A special anniversary post has been uploaded. Many thanks to MSC for the original material. Last update with the old logo and look, so enjoy...

We're up and running http://www.derbydeadpool.co.uk/general/rules_and_scoring.html Good luck, everyone!

Well, if you're telling the truth about your age on your profile, you would be the youngest ever winner by a considerable margin. Indeed you are younger than the age limit we have for celeb choices!

275 hits equates to a death (hit) nearly every 32 hours...

So I've calculated 141,7 pts for The Love Boat this year, out of 214 possible.92,62 for Shameless, plus some points for Jay Clark, let's say, around 100pts. 86,27 pts for The B-Team (scores for Shameless and The B-Team are not up-to-date, as I have to adjust Drop 40/unique/obit chances). The best possible team I could have fielded, according to my longlist would go on to score 146,52pts, but I've decided against picking Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and against picking Lucas Kinney (and I slightly attributed some more risk to The Love Boat). The highest scoring person I didn't pick (bar the terrorists) was Jacques Chirac, followed by Joseph Kony and Marieke Vervoort. Watch this space, if you're interested in my calculations for other teams (not entirely unselfish, as it is a research exercise). DQSP: 108,47+7,75 (Mark Sims joker bonus)+ 8,1 (Paul Briggs) + 5,34 (Laurie Brokenshire) + 5,1 (Michael Perham) = 134,76 (Paul Briggs and Jagraj Singh would now be in my main team) TLE: 102,46 + 7,80 (al-Baghdadi joker bonus) + Steve Pollard (1,31) + Susanne Cameron-Blackie (???) + Vincent Lambert (1,96) + Les Mutrie (5,61) = 119,14 plus Anna Raccoon (which I can't figure out) TJS: 115,06 + joker bonus + 3,83 (Wayne Barrett) = 118,89 + joker bonus = Heading Nowhere: 113,25pts + joker bonus = Pan Breed: 120,39+8,99 (Gord Downie joker bonus)+ 5,28 (Anna Holmlund)=134,66 Bert Trautmann: 114,22 + 7,75 (Mark Sims joker bonus) + 4,36 (Jerome Golmard) + 4,14 (Patrick Cryne) = 130,47 Going Underground: 81,39 + 7,53 (Tracy McGiffin joker bonus) + Sonny West + Leon White + Paul Madeley + Rena Salmon + Jessi Zazu = Cancel My Appointments: JoeyRuss: 124,18 + 8,38 (Ben Suisala joker bonus) = 132,56 RadGuy: Dead as a Doornail: Still Life: (I will add teams as I encounter them and find them interesting - the single names are those I had to add to my long list, and while I didn't do the same exercise for other teams last year, it should not be terribly surprising if my team scores best - because, after all, that's why I picked the people I picked. But the new-to-me picks can shake things up.) Love to know what you make of my crumbles!! I'll do it tomorrow, I promise! You have lots of different and new (to me) names, and I'm afraid I might not judge them right today.Please do mine, I have my team in my signature and my own personal analysis on this page. Done, and done. Gooseberry Crumble, while your teams may not score highest, I think they are very classy teams, full of interesting stories. None of those "cancer-celebrities". And it looks as if two of your teams will score higher than me in my first year. Also, I couldn't check all the new people very thoroughly. Sometimes you don't read any news about new people, are they just content to be left alone, or is health the reason? It's often hard to tell. So if you know these people better than me (surely true for UK authors and scandinavian politicians), and you know their half-secret health issues, your score will be higher than what I have calculated. If age is the reason someone was picked, I give a probability according to the fatality risk of a US social security recipient (statistics are available online). There is some adjustment if a person has heart troubles, is retired, looks bad, or gives interviews and the like... An 85 year old person basically has about a 15% of dying in the next 12 months, statistically. So it's 6 base points (for octogenarians) * 0,15 = 0,9. This is then multiplied with the chance of obiting. The base points get multiplied by the chance of being a unique hit, a Drop 40 pick, or the likelihood of an unnatural death. So, a unique 85-year old with 90% chance of obiting (say, some classical musician) but no chance of Drop 40 or unnatural death and no extraordinary health problems gets (6+1*3)*0,15*0,9= 1,215 Some stage IV lung cancer patient (say, 80% of dying this year), say 56 years old, 50% obit chance, no chance of being unique or Drop 40 gets 9*0,8*0,5= 3,6 So, the scoring system favours cancer celebrities, but then what can you do... Edit: Ok, enough deadpooling for now, I hardly got anything done at home in the past days... Welcome to my World...

Curiously no. He emailed me at the beginning of the entry period asking about whether he could be let back into the forum. But I have no influence on that. As far as I know he didn't send in a team. I don't think Magere entered a team. Jesus Jones hasn't returned but Octopus has and Mr C is back for a record equalling 19th time. But I wont know solidly who's in and out for a while yet as I go through the entries. I've done a lot of prep today but will tackle the entries this evening...

In 2015 there were a few teams that didn't do so well. in 2016 pretty much everyone where on their "A" game. A bit like the darts this year...

Final update for 2016. Time to unpin this thread and pin 2017 then....

Yes, folks. Anyone you know you've picked (or guess have been picked by others) please put on here so I know they've croaked while I'm putting on the teams/celebs in the next week or so... Deathray asked about entrants. There was a huge spike post-Xmas which by my calculations will put the entries past the 500 mark for 2017. But a lot of work still needs to be done. But first I have to round off 2016...

I think what is quite telling is that there's been talk of other teams making Spade-like choices of having Spade-like teams, as if there was some formula to win. Such has been the impact of DQSP's success in recent years. Yes DDT has been unerringly consistent and have been brief periods of dominance by other teams. But Spade/DQSP represents I think the first truly dominant figure in the DDP. It's Steve Davis or Roger Federer. The yardstick for everyone else to match...

Well done, Spade. A superb performance. The Drive for Five is on!

Less than 6 hours left get an obit and DDP 2016's 276th hit...

For what it's worth, here are my teams: The Man In Black's "The Pythons are Dying in the Wrong Order..." Terry Jones (J) John Cleese Eric Idle Terry Gilliam Michael Palin Connie Booth Neil Innes David Sherlock Barry Cryer Richard Baker Diddy David Hamilton (singer) Lulu Ringo Starr Gwen Taylor Chris Langham Carole Cleveland Charles McKewon Kenneth Colley Patricia Quinn Simon Jones The Sunday Supplement's Premature Review of 2017 Kirk Douglas (J) Bruce Forsyth Hillary Clinton Robert Wagner John Hillerman Peter Carrington Norman Tebbit Bob Dylan Jack Nicholson Sean Connery Sheila Mercier Clarissa Eden Freddie Starr Frank Williams Mel Brooks Eileen Derbyshire Chuck Berry Prunella Scales Queen Elizabeth II Burt Reynolds

Pleased to say Big Iain is back for another year too. I bet he can't believe the DDP has lasted so long!

He'll be back but not as a contender...

Out of interest there were over 100 "misses" in the DDP in 2016, surely a record?

No need, I've done it for you. 2016 December - Mourning Glory - 37 points November - Worm Farmer - 18 points October - Sir Candy's All Stars - 22 Points September - Whole In Won - 20 points August - The Grim Actuary - 17 Points July - And My Name Is Larry and Dave's Dead, Aye Dead Drunk - 31 points June - It's Grim Up North - 16 points May - Old As Dirt - 13 points April - A Pelican In The Wilderness - 27 points March - Crossing The Styx and The Living End - 64 points February - Cancerous Hatred - 30 points January - David Quantick's Showbiz Pals - 53 points 2015 December - Tentoesup - 24 points November - Lord Gasp Saloon and The Funky Faz's Crypt Of Chortles - 15 points October - Deathlist.net, Death Stinks and P@F Deathlist - 15 points September - The Final Whistle - 13 points August - Today's The Day The Maggots Have Their Picnic - 23 points July - Chelski Pensioners, Dead Wait, Death: A Fate Worse Than Life, Red Flagged and The Good, The Bad and Cliff Richard - 24 points June - Last Gasp Saloon and Wall Street Massacre - 15 points May - Stardust - 24 points April - The Living End - 46 points March - Deathray's Kevorkian Clinic - 31 points February - David Quantick's Showbiz Pals - 17 points January - Taking The Michael - 26 points 2014 December - Obituaries 'R' Us and Wep 2.0 - World's Eternity Prophet Reloaded - 17 points November - Garf Wants You To Die - 13 points October - David Quantick's Showbiz Pals - 31 points September - Larry King Dead, Only On CNN - 16 points August - Black Penguins Of Doom - 16 points July - David Quantick's Showbiz Pals and Octopus of Odstock - 18 points June - Time's Up Team - 15 points May - Drunkasaskunk - 25 points April - Under-Soil Greeting - 28 points March - Abdelbaset's Liquorice All-Sorts - 20 points February - NoSoup4U! - 16 points January - David Quantick's Showbiz Pals - 44 points 2013 December - Biologically Dead - 23 points November - Hide & Go Die - 23 points October - I Shall Need To Get The Black Out and The Grey Horde - 18 points September - Doornails R Us - 11 points August - Drunkasaskunk - 15 points July - People Who Will Die Before Abe Vigoda - 24 points June - I Shall Need To Get The Black Out and The Grey Horde - 27 points May - David Quantick's Showbiz Pals and Dispatch Dudes - 17 points April - The Beatles Are Dying In The Wrong Order and Lord Football's Usual List of Ill People - 27 points March - Wormer, He's A Dead Man! Niedermier Dead! Marmalard Dead! - 34 points February - The Living End - 32 points January - Octopus of Odstock - 30 points 2012 December - One Bar Gas Fire And A Tin Of Dog Food - 17 points November - Plowing The Deep - 24 points October - Their Royal Deadness or O'Dreary Leader - 14 points September - Baz & Barry's Burial Bonanza - 17 points August - Lard Bazaar - 27 points July - Girlfriend in a Coma and Jill Dando's Cat - 21 points June - Clathrate Gun - 16 points May - Misers - 37 points April - Blacksox - 14 points March - The Living End - 29 points February - Star Dust - 29 points January - 'arri Kiri and Octopus of Odstock - 29 points Thanks, that's brilliant. EDIT: I've discovered that actually I have been awarding the Player of the Month prize since 2010 when I started! I'm going to include these stats in the Stats & Facts, along with a corner devoted to the Theme Team League. But that's not going to happen for a while yet...