msc

Not just entertainment... "And that's a huge swing to the Nancy Reagan believers in the 2016 DDP. What does it mean?" "She's dead, Jim..." I actually had a rather bizarre dream a few weeks ago of David Dimbleby presenting the Drop 40 on New Years Eve as though it were an election. Amusing and disturbing. "I hear Jeremy Paxman is with Mrs Thatcher now..." "Mrs Thatcher, you've dropped off the Drop 40 this year, of course..." "The voters have spoken, the bastards." "Yes, but, you've already gone." "Bastards." That's my train of thought on this now.

Not just entertainment... "And that's a huge swing to the Nancy Reagan believers in the 2016 DDP. What does it mean?" "She's dead, Jim..."

I try to explain that sometimes all we need are these little 'hits' to get things rolling. I had a massive year in my DP I run last year, and it all got started with a few points from Little Jimmy Dickens age 94. Not a damned thing wrong with getting hits of any kind. SC As the Reaper himself has noted in the past, the old supply a constant stream of success. Most winners of the DDP have had some old person count as one of their hits (even if they had discovered rare news that Claudio Abbado was iller than expected). They're just hard to predict for DDP psephology and swings, as they could go at any time. Nancy is a case in point!

Given he nearly died, that's presumably better than the alternative!

Darrow, though I suspect this one will be very close.

"Eeny etc etc" brings us to Vera Lynn.

Missing from the list in the first post, incidentally: Ramsey scored at the end of August 2014, hours before the death of Richard Attenborough. I remember it because my last phone call prior to hearing the (sad) news mentioned Ramsey's goal, and we both said "Luckily we don't believe in curses!" Damned Arsenal.

RIP. Aaron Ramsey strikes again.

Doug looking grumpy but healthier than his team during Match of the Day. It is useful to have a Deathlist candidate we can have nearly weekly progress checks on, even if they looking rather unlikely candidates for the Reaper right now. [Notes for Sir Creep: Ellis's former football club, Aston Villa, are having whats known as a fucking shite season. Relegation certs, and the cameras show Ellis in the crowd each week on Match of the Day looking various degrees of pissed off about the whole thing.]

Sounds interesting, MPFC, I'll certainly take a look at the time.

I've heard rumours that if that does happen, the board will be handing out altitude sickness pills to the fans to help them recover!

Can't trust Dundee to do anything, either. I know, I know, Thistle would get crushed too, but still. Mind you, we've never played the new Rangers, we might suddenly turn into Brazil 1970 playing them.

FEEK OUT!* 2/50 4th March 2016 Country singer Joey Feek has died after a short cancer battle, producing the second success of the year for The Crowdsourced Deathlist. Alongside her husband Rory, Joey had released a number of songs in the past few years, including "When I'm Gone" and "To Say Goodbye". With those levels of predeterminism, she'd have been a cheat player at deadpools. Their most recent album was top of the charts in the US country charts (and the Christian charts!) and was Grammy nominated. In recent weeks, the family has been keen to tell us that Feek was in talks with Jesus. It now appears that Jesus has decided to take those meetings back to his place. Feek was forty, and appeared in 36th place on the list. *In loving tribute to both Chic and one of our forum members

With those two, you've moved from joint 67th to joint 65th. Sorry, it's an old joke but I couldn't resist.

RIP. Her poor daughter. She's just at the age where she'll recogise someone is gone but has no chance of understanding why.

You pause two seconds to add a line in about Hayabusa and someone ninjas you!

Oh hell, that's it! I'm starting my theme team list for next year. Hart is my Joker. SC Bret Hart knows the Sir Creep tropes "I was made aware of the comments Jim Ross made on a recent radio interview. I just want to clarify that, while the surgery went well and my doctors and I are optimistic, it is still way too early to declare that it’s now a non-issue. I will be monitored every 3 months over the next couple of years as there is a possibility that the cancer can come back. It will be a while before I can say I’m cancer free." From his Facebook. Sad news about Hayabusa too. He was considered one of the great showman wrestlers of the 90s, spoken of in hushed tones ala Rey Mysterio, but had to retire early after a botched moonsault. Last I heard they were hopeful he might even walk again. RIP.

Especially given you won last year after Sadhana recovered from emergency surgery only to die after a short battle with cancer a year later! (Of course, they might be related, but it looked like it was two separate cases of aging person ill health.)

Myself and Spade both have BBC documentary maker Rowena Kincaid, who is said to be deteriorating quickly. There's also Granger (who wont go) and Van der Westhuizen (who is in year 5 of MND, but more an end of year/2017 pick right now at a guess). Also, I've got Dr Mark Sims, who is famous for, err, dying. Not my proudest moment. As for your little game... Pan Breed dead - Angelil, Crowe, Lubbock, Farren, Smith, Gartside certs - Feek, Diski probable - Kincaid possible - Van der Westhuizen, Stiles, Sims, Marks bad picks - Bishop Robinson, Granger, Ford, Bonnie Brown don't know - Farnham, LaTourette probably a year early - McDonald I was surprised you picked Superstar Billy. He's the biggest case of the boy who cried wolf in wrestling. His "my liver is done and I am totally dying, months left" speech was from 2010! (I was going to pick Blackjack Mulligan but the lack of an obit for Nick Bockwinkel scared me away.)

You've got Esterhazy, Christie, Langhorne and Travis. If those four are all still breathing on January 1st, I'll be shocked. I cut three of them from my own team which is practically the kiss of death this year. Why would Esterhazy failure to die be a 'shock'? I have him in my DP I run and I consider it the second worst pick I made. It takes a while for pancreatic C to get down to business, and all we know is he was diagnosed. Show me it was stage 4. He prolly has two years yet. It was a bad pick by me then and remains one. SC "If those four are ALL still breathing" means any of the above, not necessarily all of the above. Though, as I mentioned, I feel Peter Esterhazy is probably going to die, on the basis of the good old fashioned jinx: I didn't pick him from my final shortlist of 25, therefore he's doomed. More fatal than any cancer.

CROWE'KD 1/50 2nd March 2016. Cricketing great Martin Crowe has declared out for 53 after a long battle with cancer, to give The Crowdsourced Deathlist its first success of the year. Crowe was named Player of the Tournament at the 1992 Cricket World Cup, and was a contendor for Player of the Deathlist, with a creditable 3rd place on merit. After some glaring misses in the early months of the year, The Crowdsourced Deathlist is finally on track. There is no doubt the quality of its team will shine through before long, and it will start bowling out the opposition.

From Seventh Seal to Ming the Merciless to Minority Report, the scale of Max von Sydow's lengthy career has always impressed. I was rooting for him to win that Oscar a few years back. Sean Connery wouldn't surprise me if he went tomorrow. It was quite telling when he was unable to do anything for the Scottish Indy Ref campaign, even a voice over, on health grounds. Not an actor, but Dambusters director Michael Anderson is still with us.

Sorry to hear that, Ali. Better safe than sorry, though, with getting it checked. I had similar foot injures when I was young. Not sure what the .1 in my score is for (then, as I've said many times, maths is not my strong point) but I'll certainly take it.

You've got Esterhazy, Christie, Langhorne and Travis. If those four are all still breathing on January 1st, I'll be shocked. I cut three of them from my own team which is practically the kiss of death this year.

Glad you raised that - because, basically, it all stops on the winning day, so the podium is as it was then. If you dig into the rules you'll see there's even an exclusion clause supporting that and stating no death subsequently proven to have taken place earlier can overturn it. Oh aye, and... I have a cunning plan for a new dead pool based on a really brutal division of winning and losing - but more of that in late May. I have a great idea for a DP as well but fear I won't be able to administer it with all that goes on in my dreary life. Maybe I'll give her a go though. I want to finalize the concept first then present it. It'll be soon, as I want it to start apart from Jan 1. SC I'm loving the explosion of creativity around the whole dead pool theme. Death eh; delicious hot, disgusting cold. I had an idea for one myself but I was thinking more end of Summer starting time. It'd also be "self-service" deadpooling, in a manner of speak, so perfect for a lazy sod like me.