msc

I see your four and raise you...

C'mon Widows Peak, then.

Sir Creep, this is no DDP boast, But Leah will soon become a ghost. She's not feeling fantastic, As her cancer's quite metastatic. That doesn't rhyme, but it is true.

Sometime in July: Friend: Oh, So and So has cancer, did you hear? Me: No. (quickly opens Ideas word file, scribbles down name, returns to work or chatter or whatever...) Sometime in December: Me: Right, time to look at that shortlist.... where the hell did all these names come from?

No doubt the questions went on: How many times in the last year have you drowned in a Scottish loch? Have you ever tried to emulate Robin Cook, by falling off a mountain ledge clutching your chest?

Both. By way of proof, I found my September 2016 long-list and it's copy and pasted below in the spoiler tag - after I checked it for any names I was keeping secret... Obviously, lots more names came in Oct-Dec, and a whole bunch of folk snuffed it early. I even kept the references to Aki Hintsa and John Hurt "getting better", because LOL... I just list everyone I stumble across, and then whack a list into shape in December. If anything, this shows the issue with too much choice...

Well, most uniques appear to be old guys now. There's far more of them. Not listing the Shameless types... For the ill folk, you got one on Wayne Barrett. There's also Miguel Ferrer (not many willing to task the risk on rumours?), Martin McGuinness, John Derrick, and Gary deCarlo. I can genuinely say three of those were on my long shortlist, but dropped for being unsure the nature of the illness, being a fuckwit who went for a no name dying prisoner instead, and utterly forgetting about one. Ferrer I saw but brushed aside as internet chinese whispers, and Wayne Barrett entirely escaped me. Possibly because I'm a pro-wrestling fan and even now, my brain is auto-correcting that to British wrestler Wade Barrett. Basically you need all of those little bits of luck to create a unique pick these days: Perez, Kobayashi, etc show that. But then, my 2013 team was full of uniques. My 2016 team didn't have a single one. I know which team did better.

Noticing a cow theme, today!

Article picture caption is wrong. Met these guys last time I were in London. Not those exact cows, of course. We're talking a fair while ago now.

Current Projection... Tjs 188 (Bradley, Nevin, Ricketts surviving) DQSP 186 (Bradley, Gilbert, Nevin surviving – w/ Singh QO) GS 179 (Forsyth, Nevin Ricketts surviving) Still Life 176 (Fujimori, James, Spiridinov surviving)

Well done Bert!

Golmard once beat Tim Henman at a Grand Slam, which increases his QO hopes. (Also he was a seeded player who died young, so...give it a few days tops...)

First rule of "30 point jokers" - assume Death Impends already has them on their shortlist. There was a funny moment in the new year chat where it slowly turned out nearly everyone in the chat at that moment had the same person on their DDP teams, but none of them had mentioned the person on the forum... Rayya? Someone like that. Anyhow, it had a degree of French farce about it...

Goodness, that's a game changer if the obit arrives.

Bishops are cert obits. They just take a bit at times if they're not big name ones, and the Bishopric of Bradwell isn't one. I'd be surprised if Singh missed out on an obit, but then again, Sunny's tribute on Facebook read like the article I'd have expected him to write for a QO...

I predict that he will die in the future. And remember, future events such as these will affect you in the future.

There's only one living 113 year old in the UK (verified) - Bess Camm. Oldest living guy is 109 year old Alf Smith from Perth. Oldest living Germans (verified) are 111.

Is it still that grumpy twat hosting Countdown? Nick somebody. Needs a Whiteley type, not Mr "You'll Have Had Yer Innuendo"..

It's been a bit of a pisser for him, too.

This is like when I get bored on Football Manager. Sacking Everyone, Relegating the damn team, and sodding off...

The real life General Gavin lived till 1990, whereas the actor died of lung cancer in the early 70s. Pretty sure there's a fair few from The Longest Day, actually.

Aye, but everything dies if you wait long enough.

Very belated half-smug reply: sometimes, predictions go swimmingly.

Sison, Duterte, Hapilon: this is all setting up for a modern remake of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly's cemetery showdown.

My great uncle died in the First World War. He was 14. Those signing folk up didn't give a toss.