Octopus of Odstock

A couple of footballing deaths to report: Willie Cunningham, footballer for Northern Ireland, and part of their 1958 World Cup squad, has died, aged 77. He also managed a trio of clubs in Scotland. Rather spookily, one of the players Cunningham lined up against in 1958 has died a day later, Viliam Schrojf played in three World Cups, and was in the 1962 World Cup Final. He was 76. PS I am now back from holiday & working on getting a Ruesch obit for the DDP.

Give it time, CP, I expect hope for a broadsheet obit soon. Yes, two premature hits, dammit. Tis always the way.... I shouldn´t be surprised about Ruesch, a GP driver always seems to die on holiday (on which I am still on)

Oral Roberts, me thinks.

Jeroen Boere, the former West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southend, Crystal Palace & West Brom footballer, has died, at the tragically early age of just 39. Link

Ta. Well, Whitlam was the one, along with Porterfield/Allison who might not trascend as much globally, I must admit. Whitlam was the former, and rather controversial PM of Australia. Now 91, and in a wheelchair. I can't say if all the names on that list would go in 2008, but they are all genuinely strong or good candidates for a variety of reasons. None over the age of 100, either. I realise there's about 4 or 5 spaces, but chances are famous people will be announced as ill between now & December, and some of the list will probably die before December, so there's room for perhaps as many as 10 more good, but more... shall we say.. daring picks? Right, really must go and sort out my suitcase....

How about: Young: Doherty, Winehouse, Lohan, Gazza, Maradona Very Famous (or very famous in their field/country) but ill/old Heston, Deborah Kerr, Solzhnetisyn, Yitzhak Shamir, Billy Graham, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ariel Sharon, Betty Ford, Norman Wisdom, Evel Knievel, Arthur C Clarke, Suharto, Sir Bobby Robson, Ian Smith, Ian Porterfield, Ravi Shankar, Yves St. Laurent, Sir Edmund Hillary, Malcolm Allison, Richard Widmark, Lena Horne, Luciano Pavarotti, Gough Whitlam, Ronnie Biggs, Jeremy Thorpe, Tony Hart, Tariq Aziz, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Moore, Maureen O'Hara, Michael Foot, Denis Healey, Mollie Sugden, Baroness Thatcher, Sir Jimmy Young, Nelson Mandela, Walter Cronkite, Helmut Kohl, Jane Tomlinson Assassination: Musharraf Immortal: Dunn The vast majority of them, people on the street would've heard of. Most have been mentioned on DL a number of times.

I'm not a loyal subject of the Queen, but my guess is The Times & The Independent are both very similiar, maybe The Telegraph too. NOT the Guardian. Must finish.. ahem.. start my packing for my immiment departure.

Mainly cos the whole idea of that particular deadpool was not to choose easy picks like ancient old biddies. I think it's also notable that none of the teams that selected her on DDP had her down as a joker pick. I'm guessing that most people had her down as a "20th person" or "low banker" pick - a strong, good pick, but not worth as many points as say the Iraqis or Messner etc. (Shamir was my 20th/low banker pick - he'd better die as Lady Bird Johnson, Astor, Bruce Bennett & Zahir Shah were all rejected in favour of him)

Oh bollocks.. I forgot that. Looks like I drop out of the top 10 then.

Same here, Windsor. I just felt, with the new rules, it wasn't worth the 4 points, when there were equally good candidates worth 7 or 8 points. Well done to Deathlist, and those who selected her. Can't say I'm surprised. I heard she had another form of cancer to add to her long list of ailments, but it seems pneumonia did her in, in the end.

How immensely sad. A while back I read he was ailing, but still attempting to make the odd appearance around the country. But the last few years have not been kind to him. As someone who had to help make the decision & then help put my grandmother in an nursing home for Alzheimer's, that particular line about Sir Norman's first few days was particulary poignant & difficult. I just hope his remaining days will be as happy as possible & this family thing is sorted out. The way Ted Williams' family treated him in his last days was shocking - let's hope Wisdom's family, whilst not so insane, treat him a lot better than that.

Have you ever been to Middlesbrough? I nearly threw myself out of the car, a la Brian Harvey, it was that depressing.

There must be more to this story, MPFC. I mean, how exactly does a board lose confidence in a manager after just 90 minutes of a season? I mean a draw against a well organised, ambitious team who may surprise this year is hardly a bad result & not one that instantly demands the sack?! Was he shagging the board's missuses or something, a la Docherty? Had he run over the club cat? In that case you might as well sack Sir Alex Ferguson for dropping two points against the mighty hard-trying Royals yesterday...

Well, if that's the case - my mind's made up - if it stops Iain from posting, this forum upgrade is the best thing ever to happen to the Deathlist.

Valencia, Seville & Barcelona are lovely. Don't like Madrid, too dull & civil servant-like. Geneva was interesting, but pricy. Heraklion is a dump. Tunis is a real gem of a place. Atlanta was remarkably clean & easy to navigate. Edinburgh didn't really impress me much - Manchester, especially, and Sheffield have really smartened themselves up in recent years. Valletta in Malta was okay, but needs to smarten itself up. However my favourite city that I have visited would have to be Havana. Wonderful, especially when you go off the tourist trail. Here ends OOO's brief guide to city breaks. Next on the list (hopefully).. Bruges & Brussels in 2008 in OOO's famous Belgian tour.

Maybe. He's on the shortlist. Depends what happens in the next few days, and on other candidates, I suppose. However, I think the person to ask is Football Fan, aka Meet Your Maker, who will win this year, and won last year too.

This follows up from what DDT was saying the other day. A great shame if he does go. I've just been reading about him & also the interview he did with Orson Welles, just hours before Welles died. Link - but no official confirmation yet.

And with good reason, too. Not a comedy partnership, per se, but whenever Jack Lemmon & Walter Matthau were in a film together, the chemistry they had made the films very enjoyable, often far more than the script deserved.

Well, I have been known to be wrong before, so Oldham will probably finish 18th & Carlisle 2nd. Let us see in 9 months time, but I'm so confident they're going up, I've put money on them & that's not a decision I take lightly. Hell, I've not even backed the Royals to stay up.

No. Nottm Forest, Oldham in the top two - play-offs Swansea, Millwall, Walsall & Doncaster None of the three relegated teams back up, Crewe to go down & Carlisle to finish 18th.

I've gone for 18th for Carlisle.

What a shame. The wording has a more ominous feel about it this time, than in March. I had vowed to name an ex-Reading FC player in my DDP team in 2008 - Porterfield would be prime candidate right now. He'll be in my CPDP theme team though (HINT - Damn... have I possibly given my theme team idea away??) (The handy thing about being involved in Reading FC player histories is learning who's ill/aged/frail etc - thus a strong DDP unique pick ) Again, I hope he pulls through.

Perhaps he caused it (to get himself out of another civil suit)? "Oy Suharto, come to court to get justice" "Can't.. earthquake has cut off access to the local court but nothing else. Damn what a shame.."

Let me requote what I said on the 5th Aug: I#ve not changed my mind in 3 days, Lita's stretching injury nothwithstanding. I don't think we'll go down - most pundits seem to think anywhere between 11th-16th & I agree.

Barry & Paul Chuckle