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I Shall Need To Get the Black Out Sam Simon (joker) Billy Graham Wojciech Jaruzelski Jack Ramsay Casey Kasem Brian Hart Stephen Lewis Valerie Harper Clive James Liz Dawn Wilko Johnson Sandy Jardine Pat Rice Clark Datchler Joost van der Westhuizen Helen Fawkes Katherine Crowe Steve Gleason Ryan Buell Ritchii Kara

Decided not to go for Kate Granger because I'm not convinced she'll get the obit and I'm already carrying one risky pick. Hopefully won't cost me like Bonnie Franklin and Lisa Lynch last year Amongst the others I've decided not to go with are Prince Philip, Castro, Brian Cant, Jim Bowen, Ali and Pratchett. I've also dropped Greaves, Barry Chuckle, Adler and Assad - I've gone more conservative as I've become more competitive in this

I didn't go for Bamber either but did go for a risky F1-related pick - outside chance of a unique, particularly if OoO hasn't gone for the same person (and every chance is he's leading me and everyone else on anyway). I've also gone for a former NFL player who may be a unique, may not die and may not get an obit if he does, so a bit of a risk. Can't see the team finishing as high as this year but you never know - it's wide open I've also submitted an F1 theme team again, despite a lack of success this year. No Schumacher, though, because I submitted too early Will be interesting to see if there are/were any plants on this forum that weren't actually that ill. Hoping I haven't been suckered in by any of them myself

I'd guess if he hangs on till the 3rd he might do a Sharon, Cracknell or Hammond (i.e. not die) Indeed. No news seems to be good news at this stage. The way some of the experts are talking, such as Dr Gary Hartstein the former official F1 doctor, Michael's injuries aren't as bad as they seemed - the second operation rumours have been rejected, which would suggest that they're keeping the swelling under control without the need for further action (unless of course the hospital really aren't telling us the full picture). That he is in a "critical" condition and in an induced coma are fairly standard practice for this sort of injury - it doesn't tell us much about the severity of the injuries, other than it's at least quite bad The doctors are just managing expectations at this stage. I can remember several drivers in recent years being in similar situations - Cristiano da Matta, Felipe Massa, Robert Kubica (different sort of injuries but similarly bleak reports at one point), and Richard Hammond as already mentioned. Before that Karl Wendlinger and Mika Hakkinen also had severe head injuries in the 1990s. They all came out of these OK and live normal lives now, even getting back behind the wheel. Racing drivers have very good care, even when doing other things. I've already submitted my DDP team so couldn't stick him in anyway, but at the moment I'm not sure it would be worth the gamble anyway, though it's difficult to tell either way at this stage What's disappointing in hindsight is the local sources actively saying he was fine in the hours after it. I'm sure he did seem fine in the immediate aftermath of it but it was clear that something larger was wrong - we all know that people who suffer from severe head injuries can appear fine at first. I had an ominous feeling even after these reports - the media clung onto the story which suggests they knew more than they were letting on, i.e. they may have known it was more serious than it seemed but were reluctant to come out and say it, which made it look like, to quote my father, "it was the result of a slow news day". As for the Meribel people, I get the impression their response was more meant to be "no, really, he's fine, our slopes are safe"

Lam Kok (not a euphamism)

Just spent the evening working on mine. It's tougher this year than last. There were a few open goals last year - Chavez, Bernie, Cecil, Reg Presley. I think that explains my performance this year - I wasn't expecting to be that far up the leaderboard. But it seems there are less certainties for 2014 - yes, there are one or two we know to be terminally ill or in their final weeks (and I'm surprised they've lasted this long), but a lot of them seem to be older so aren't worth as much. I feel like I'm having to push the boat out a bit more - and you can bet that the likes of OoO, Spade and DDT will have done more research than I have

Various news sites reporting him dead. Guardian obit here

Eurosport was considered acceptable this year, was it not? Or does that come under Yahoo?

Guessing he'll be number 1 in the DL if he holds on. Hope he does - held him off my DDP team this year

England will somehow scrape out of their group before going out to Brazil in the quarters. Spain to beat Germany in the final

I'm sure there are Russell Group uni student newspaper columnists up and down the country penning their latest column "Why I don't care about Mandela dying and neither should you" Pretty sure there would be interruptions if McCartney went. Possibly even Dylan

Biggs

The driver in the Paul Walker crash was a racing driver, Roger Rodas: http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/who-roger-rodas-driver-paul-2873910

The Fast and the Furious star Paul Walker has died, rather predictably, in an explosive car crash The Quick and the Dead

There are episodes in the next series that are known to involve him so he'll be brought back to life somehow

^^This. Also he's been in some shit films and has done far too much work for Disney Cleese is pretty much the same as well. I thought it was pretty much accepted that they're generally both awful human beings

Sad news about Bamber. It's been alluded to for a while that he's been quite ill

Franchitti has announced his retirement due to the injuries he sustained

Obit here So no more British people born in the 19th century

Yeah. Lewis Hamilton's brother Nicolas has raced in the past and he suffers from cerebral palsy. I doubt it's too much of an issue, especially considering NASCAR isn't the most physically demanding motorsport series out there. If it was F1, maybe it would be a different matter

2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne has been diagnosed with MS at the age of 22, but says he's in the best shape of his career and wants to keep racing...

Joost doesn't look too bad

Just come up on the BBC Sport Twitter feed that he has died

The last two posts:

Rob Ryan's the fat one these days, though. A walking heart attack if ever I saw one