msc

Johnny Hutch off The Big Three, 60s Merseybeat drummer who turned down a spot as Beatles drummer, reportedly dead.

As hinted in the previous Reptile update, James recently underwent emergency surgery on a fast growing malignant spread of his cancer.

Hope you get discharged soon!

To my mind, one of the great underrated wrestling commentary calls comes from the cursed WrestleMania VII at the end of the Undertaker/Snuka squash match. "I don't believe that! That is Superfly Jimmy Snuka!" Villainous commentator and all-round GOAT Bobby Heenan seems legit gobsmacked at the most protected murderer in 80s wrestling being treated by a newcomer like a complete redshirt. And I ain't saying he's a murderer, but he's certainly a Deadpool Veteran, so I feel much the same staring at the scoreline between 2017 Cup winner Deadsox and young Mr Clorox. Paul Severs gets his QO here. Hopefully by the time you see it, they'll have fixed the formatting crash, but it is what it is. Four points for Clorox, Deadsox gets to feel sever-ed, and I am properly gobsmacked in a way I rarely am... Round 3 1. The Mad Hatter vs Boudicca 0-0 2. Rad vs Banana 9-6 3. John Key vs Death Impends 0-14 4. The Quim Reaper vs Book 3-0 5. Gcreptile vs Pedro 6-0 6. Chorizo vs Torva Messor 3-3 7. Bibliogryphon vs Spade Cooley 0-14 8. Deadsox vs Clorox 0-16 Btw, Boudicca's clean sheet is now 68 days. She'd equal Willz's record on Thursday - can she make it? Keep tuned.

Am afraid I've become far too safe and predictable a DPer, and my gut feeling picks tend to farm off to the theme teams (see McIllvanney). Sandy was considered for my "Spade Cooley obits" team but I had - wrongly - assumed a likely Eastenders theme team would have her!

It's always sad to see a talent - which she was - overcome by personal demons imo. RIP In retrospect, this was an unexpectedly accurate post by me 6 months ago:

Ly Tong has sung his song, played his Pong, gone to Hong Kong etc. Rad cashes in his joker and takes the lead, the first time I think Banana has been behind in the Cup. Also cashing in Joker points is Clorox who takes a surprisingly commanding lead. The third team to have Tong Points is Spade, who has a deeply competitive knife edge tie... Round 3 1. The Mad Hatter vs Boudicca 0-0 2. Rad vs Banana 9-6 3. John Key vs Death Impends 0-14 4. The Quim Reaper vs Book 3-0 5. Gcreptile vs Pedro 6-0 6. Chorizo vs Torva Messor 3-3 7. Bibliogryphon vs Spade Cooley 0-14 8. Deadsox vs Clorox 0-12

Starting to go blind? She walked right into a table few months ago on Eastenders!

1. John Cleese 2. Prunella Scalees 3. Connie Booth 4. Robin Ellis 5. Lionel Wheeler (?) 6. Michael Cronin 7. Barney Dorman (?) 8. April Walker 9. Bernard Cribbins 10. Peter Brett 11. Andre Maranne 12. Louis Mahoney 13. Johnny Shannon 14. Nicky Henson 15. Imogen Bickford-Smith 16. Claire Neilson 17. Anthony Dawes 18. Geoffrey Palmer 19. Pamela Buchner 20. Una Stubbs 21. Denyse Alexander 22. Melody Lang 23. Sabina Franklyn Off the credited cast alone.

Nicky Henson has had incurable but treatable cancer for close to two decades now, mind.

Betty Boothroyd looking well during the Lords Brexit debate.

Bill Heine's death is all over the news now. If you think I'm annoyed Spade beat me to a "jump the shark" pun, well, you'd be right. Points for Rad and Banana, with Banana maintaining a small lead. TQR takes the lead against Book. Torva and Chorizo share points. Clorox goes 6-0 up, against an opponent who is difficult to beat in the Cup. Meanwhie, Reptile cashes in his joker, and Death Impends extends his lead. Mr Key, I think you might want to skim over these updates now on health grounds tbh... The only goalless game left is Mad Hatter/Boudicca. I have the Kid as highly fancied in his section of the Cup, but weird note is that Boudicca is yet to concede a single point in the Cup. The record is 70 days, held by Young Willz, and Bou is now at 62. Mentioned before MH gets his first points... Round 3 1. The Mad Hatter vs Boudicca 0-0 2. Rad vs Banana 3-6 3. John Key vs Death Impends 0-14 4. The Quim Reaper vs Book 3-0 5. Gcreptile vs Pedro 6-0 6. Chorizo vs Torva Messor 3-3 7. Bibliogryphon vs Spade Cooley 0-11 8. Deadsox vs Clorox 0-6

Hayit's the leader of a Tajikistan political party, Gryb is a jailed terrorist (or at the very least, hes in jail for the crime).

I'm usually quite content to let everyone else moan on both sides here, but since DDT spoke out, a brief bit: One of my closest pals, suffering from a killer but stable incurable illness, has been told by both the NHS and Department of Health that, on a No Deal Brexit, the medicine keeping their condition stable will not be imported into the UK, due to price/commonality of need. The prognosis is 6 weeks without it. All the sexy killer illnesses medicine (you know, breast cancer, asthma, etc) have a route FOR NOW due to necessity and numbers, through English stockpiles and Ireland, naturally, can't harm those big salaried charity bosses. Anyhow, this is not the fault of Corbyn, Remain voters, the SNP, Lord Fellatio Nelson leave voters or any other potential media scapegoat. Solely the guilt of the current Westminster government, who have had 3 years to plan in case of emergencies and done FUCK ALL. Anyhow, even though the medicine that helps keeps me alive is safeguarded for now, I am 100% opposed to no deal Brexit. Turkeys, early Christmas, voting, etc...

Vonda McIntyre, SF author, has died aged 70. Wrote some of the first authorised Star Trek books, you know, and gave Sulu his first name. Now she is Su-long, DI gets joker points. That's two DDP heavyweights with 8 point leads already, are we due a Clash of the Titans in the Quarterfinals? At least, that was my speil until it came out that Mahendran, one of the most acclaimed directors in Indian film (and believe me, that's quite an accolade), has died. So Spade actually has 11 points. Somewhere someone's handed a poisoned chalice to Biblio, and Joey is breathing a sigh of relief I didn't go for Best Losing Score! Death Impends also had Mahendran, so do we have a Quarterfinal set already on April 2nd? The directors death gives more usual score leads to Banana and Clorox. Round 3 1. The Mad Hatter vs Boudicca 0-0 2. Rad vs Banana 0-3 3. John Key vs Death Impends 0-11 4. The Quim Reaper vs Book 0-0 5. Gcreptile vs Pedro 0-0 6. Chorizo vs Torva Messor 0-0 7. Bibliogryphon vs Spade Cooley 0-11 8. Deadsox vs Clorox 0-3

Jury says yes. Noted Cup escapologist Biblio in a bit of a bind already. Round 3 1. The Mad Hatter vs Boudicca 0-0 2. Rad vs Banana 0-0 3. John Key vs Death Impends 0-0 4. The Quim Reaper vs Book 0-0 5. Gcreptile vs Pedro 0-0 6. Chorizo vs Torva Messor 0-0 7. Bibliogryphon vs Spade Cooley 0-8 8. Deadsox vs Clorox 0-0

Looking and sounding quite old and wobbly by Nicholas Parsons usual standards on Channel 5's Favourite Game Shows thing. Is 96 in a few months, mind.

Die Another Day was released in 2002 so he probably saw it. Imagine going out on the worst Bond film ever made. Reminds me of my grandad hanging on with Stage IV to see Celtic win that Scottish Cup that season (they did) only to announce "that match was shite, I shouldn't have bothered!" Jock Scot who was popular on here few year back found out he was terminal in early January 2014. Massive football fan, his first thoughts were "Fuck, I'm going to miss the World Cup!" He hung on long enough to see that, and longer, and just to prove the Reaper has a sense of humour, he eventually died... a mere few weeks before the start of Euro 2016!

Qfinals 1. The Quim Reaper or Book vs The Mad Hatter or Boudicca 2. Charon or Bibliogryphon or Spade Cooley vs John Key or Death Impends 3. Gcreptile or Pedro v Rad or Banana 4. Deadsox or Clorox vs Chorizo or Torva

Round 3 1. The Mad Hatter vs Boudicca 2. Rad vs Banana 3. John Key vs Death Impends 4. The Quim Reaper vs Book 5. Gcreptile vs Pedro 6. Chorizo vs Torva Messor 7. Bibliogryphon vs Spade Cooley 8. Deadsox vs Clorox The Mad Hatter- (Dabwido* Travers, Starling, Harris, McGrath, Conway T, Trintignant, Bowie, ON John, Kerslake, Mugabe) Vs Boudicca – (Lloyd, Clegg, Hawke, Kerslake*, Patterson, Starling, McGrath, Trebek, Dabwido, Conway T, Guidotti) Rad- (Crouch, Dabwido, Donbavand, Gryb, Hayit, Heine, Higgins, McGrath, Starling, Tong*, Harris) Vs Banana (Starling, Harris, Weakland*, Heine, Dabwido, Sheridan, Mahendran, Horton, Genson, Cass, Higgins) John Key – (Bracknell, Mugabe, Vervoort, Kerslake, Chapman*, Kumar, Blanco, C James, Buydens, Ricksen, Trintignant) Vs Death Impends – (McIntyre*, Higgins, Donbavand Trebek, McGrath, Heine, DeVito, Crouch, Dabwido, Haque, Mahendran) The Quim Reaper (Kerslake*, Lloyd, Bracknell, Heine, Conway N, Porridge, Robucci, Benny 16, Donbavand, James C, James D) Vs Book (Buydens, Hawke, Jones G, Gilbert, Trintiignant, Starling*, Clegg, Blanco, Kerslake, Lloyd, Dabwido) Gcreptile (Heine*, Hori, Higgins, Donbavand, Dones, Crouch, Genson, Hilton, Porridge, Dabwido, Harris) Vs Pedro – (Trintignant, Blanco*, Robucci, Hemingway, Starling, Jackson, Harris, Stiles, Kerslake, Gascoigne, Mounsdon) Chorizo –(Donbavand*, Genson, Johnson, Heine, Porridge, Dabwido, Blanco, Ricksen, Starling, Robucci, McGrath) Vs Torva (Starling*, Kerslake, Ricksen, Barkan, Hawke, McGrath, Romero, Heine, Porridge, Spicer, Blanco) Bibliogrypon (Watson*, Pei, Cleary, Dyson, Lynn, Wouk, Hawke, Trintignant, Kerslake, Carroll, Bouteflika) Vs Spade Cooley – (Portugal*, Crouch, Tada, Harrison, Higgins, Mahendran, McGrath, Noble, Ricksen, Rister, Tong) Deadsox (Harris, Kerslake, McEwen, McGrath, Powlison, Rister, Spicer, Starling*, Tin, Tobin, Zoll) Vs Clorox- (Bowie, Dabwido, Donbavand, Gibb, Heine, Lloyd, Mahendran, Porridge, Severs, Tong*, Trintignant)

3rd round masterlist 1. Ady Barkan – Torva 2. Pope Benedict XVI – TQR 3. Kathleen Blanco – Torva, Pedro*, Chorizo 4. Leah Bracknell – TQR, Key 5. Micah Bowie – Clorox, Hatter 6. Bouteflika - Biblio 7. Anne Buydens – Book, Key 8. Pat Carroll - Biblio 9. Keith Cass –Banana 10. Beth Chapman – Key* 11. Beverly Cleary - Biblio 12. Johnny Clegg – Book, Bou 13. Noel Conway – TQR 14. Tim Conway – Bou, Hatter 15. Stanley Crouch – Reptile, DI, Rad, Spade 16. Sprent Dabwido – Banana, Book, Reptile, Bou, Clorox, DI, Rad, Hatter*, Chorizo 17. Tommy DeVito - DI 18. Tommy Donbavand – TQR, Reptile, Clorox, DI, Rad, Chorizo* 19. Pau Dones – Reptile 20. Freeman Dyson - Biblio 21. Jill Gascoine - Pedro 22. Ed Genson – Banana, Reptile, Chorizo 23. Ellen Gibb - Clorox 24. Greg Gilbert – Book 25. Pavlo Gryb - Rad 26. George Guidotti – Bou 27. Aminul Haque - DI 28. Lll Queenie Harris – Banana, deadsox, Reptile, Rad, Pedro, Hatter 29. Oliver Harrison - Spade 30. Bob Hawke – Book, Torva, Bou, Biblio 31. Mahmadali Hayit - Rad 32. Bill Heine – Banana, TQR, Reptile*, Torva, Clorox, DI, Rad, Choriz 33. John Allman Hemingway - Pedro 34. Polly Higgins – Banana, Reptile, DI, Rad, spade 35. Rick Hilton (comedian) - Reptile 36. Chiemi Hori - Reptile 37. Fast Freddie Horton – Banana 38. Katherine Jackson - Pedro 39. Clive James – TQR, Key 40. Deborah James – TQR 41. Olivia Newton John - Hatter 42. Grace Jones (old) – Book 43. WT Johnson - Chorizo 44. Lee Kerslake – Book, TQR*, deadsox, Torva, Bou*, Key, Pedro, Hatter, Bibli 45. Dilip Kumar - Key 46. Sam Lloyd – Book, TQR, Bou, Clorox 47. Vera Lynn - Biblio 48. Mahendran – Banana, Clorox, DI, Spade 49. D Mc3w3n – deadsox 50. Vonda McIntyre – DI* 51. Bat McGrath – deadsox, Torva, Bou, DI, Rad, Hatter, Spade, Chorizo 52. Maurice Mousdon - Pedro 53. Robert Mugabe – Key, Hatter 54. Lee Noble - Spade 55. Brooks Patterson – Bou 56. IM Pei - Biblio 57. David Powlison - deadsox 58. Genesis P-orridge – TQR, Reptile, Torva, Clorox, Chorizo 59. Yisroel Avrohom Portugal (NY charity boss) – Spade* 60. Fernando Ricksen – Torva, Key, Spade, Chorizo 61. Fred Rister – deadsox, Spade 62. Maria Robucci – TQR, Pedro, Chorizo 63. Randy Romero – Torva 64. Paul Severs - Clorox 65. Grant Sheridan – Banana 66. Jimmy Spicer – deadsox, Torva 67. John Starling – Banana, Book*, deadsox*, torva*, Bou, Rad, Pedro, Hatter, Chorizo 68. Nobby Stiles – Pedro 69. Joni Eareckson Tada - Spade 70. Chng Seok Tin – Deadsox 71. Peter Tobin – Deadsox 72. Ly Tong – Clorox*, Rad*, Spade 73. Brian Travers - Hatter 74. Alex Trebek – Bou, DI 75. Jean Louis Trintignant – Clorox, Key, Pedro, Hatter, Biblio 76. Marieke Vervoort – Key 77. James Watson – Biblio* 78. Archbishop Rembert Weakland – Banana* 79. Herman Wouk - Biblio 80. Rachel Zoll - deadsox

OK, so this morning when I woke up I was greeted with news from the Admin and Mods team. This suggested one of our number was unlikely to be able to submit a team. I wont pry further than have been told already, and ask that none of you do, either. Hence, the Lucky Loser random draw which brought up Bibliogryphon as the randomly chosen "winning loser".* (This ever happens again, it'll be Highest Ranking Loser instead.) And so, this is the announcement, given without any joy, that the role of charon in the 2019 DL Cup will now be played by Bibliogryphon. Teams will be up once I add Biblio's team to the list.

Can confirm Boudicca and The Mad Hatter are in. So, short of last minute deaths in those ties, from tomorrow we can all enjoy Bou Cassidy and the Morbid Kid. Gag stolen off DI.

Mesothelioma, right?

Can confirm KITT/Mr Feeny is very well known in the UK too and a banker BBC obit.