Death By Numbers 2023

[Great Uncle Bulgaria 1,051]

Belatedly noting I had Michael Parkinson here

[Captain Hemlock 641]

On 28/06/2023 at 05:38, Captain Hemlock said:

I also pm’d them but in case they didn’t go through:

 

Mid year substitutions

 

Out:

Dan Rather

John Cleese

John Fetterman

Linda Ronstadt

Lucinda Williams

 

In: 

Bob Barker

George Alagiah

Gay Talese

James Whale

Yevgeny Prigozhin

Hmm, not bad, 3 of my subs dead within 2 months.

[ladyfiona 2,042]

I have Bob Barker.

[YoungWillz 19,100]

On 30/06/2023 at 21:40, Banana said:

OUT:

Ethan Davies

Faye Fantarrow

Rhod Gilbert

Richard Holliday

Kate Keltie

 

IN:

Graham Caveney

Tylee Craft (Black Bart if not accepted)

Nick Hungerford

Jeanette Lee

Linda Nolan

Oops.

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,211]

Mohammed Al Fayed a 'hit ' for me in this pool. 

@gcreptile Does this mean I now share the most hits of the year record?!

[Toast 14,847]

Al Fayed is my 11th hit.

[gcreptile 10,235]

This all cries for an update, don't you think?

 

Today's hits are Mohamed Al-Fayed and Faye Fantarrow.

Al-Fayed was not your usual old vaguely aristocratic British businessman, he was a born Egyptian who worked his way up into the highest circles of society and into the periphery of the royal family. He did so by partnerships with Haiti's dictator Papa Doc, working with Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, and helping Dubai transform into the plastic paradise it is today. He was a hit for a couple of people, Toast, RadGuy, and again, Gooseberry Crumble among them. 

Faye Fantarrow was a young woman who was just breaking into the music business, had her record deal, published a few songs, and then got cancer and died. Yes, we know such cases exist, we don't like it, but still we occasionally pick them in games like this. She was looking and sounding stable in the first half of the year, so Banana dropped her out. Missed chance, but not dramatic (yet). Otherwise, the pack scores as you'll see.

Jango Edwards eventually got his Telegraph obit and some lucky players get their points.

Mary Louise McLaws was a unique hit for me here and in the DDP. Yes, I almost went all in for this one, should have had her in my DDP main team... As Death Impends correctly put it, she was the Anthony Fauci of Australia during the COVID pandemic and so, an accidental national celebrity. 

Next up, two more Deathlist hits and hugely popular names, Michael Parkinson and Bob Barker. You've seen the obits, you wrote them yourself, lots of you score. Barker was even jokered a few times.

Then we get to Yevgeny Prigozhin. I mean, I kind of announced I might be subbing him in here, but then didn't do it. My mistake. Some of you were cleverer. Yes, some people are just evil.

Terry Funk was also a hit, here for two players, Cpt. Chorizo and ghosts of christmas past.

Next up, Henry Dickerson, aka typical Yahoo something-with-baseball-or-basketball hit. Several players score.

Then we get to Justin Yerbury, aka the ALS researcher with ALS. He died because his wife let him die, and didn't let him rot alive hooked up on machines. Two people score, msc and Perhaps.

What next... Diego scores a unique hit with popular drug lord actor Mark Margolis. Thankfully, he lasted long enough to finish filming Better Call Saul, and I am amazed that he managed to actually appear more youthful in the prequel as he was approaching death.

Then we have Michela Murgia whose end-stage cancer fight was already going on for a while but she only appeared on the radar mid-year close to death. She got the Guardian obit, and yes, I found her LGBT books in a bookstore in Florence, in the main shopping window, so I guess she was a bigger name.

Next hit is British actress Doreen Mantle. I can't quite get into these British TV obits, not my forté (much like wrestling). But she was a unique hit for Toast, well done.

Another surprise hit is René Weller who got the obit from the pugilist main media outfit The Sun. NOT a unique hit for Book, but for Therewillbedeaths7. His death was universally expected, the obit was the question. Typical tragic boxer story, and to be honest, most boxers dont get very old. Dementia caught up with him, but he was a bit of a tabloid mess before that already. He spent money faster than it got in. To each their own...

Highest-scoring unique hit is Rodion Amirov for Summer in Transylvania. Well done. We know sarcoma can be pretty brutal on young people. He seemed to do a little better a few months before his death, but the disease is very treacherous.

 

Now we get to the stage where I wonder if these names are already in.... Federico Bahamontes is a unique hit for etib80. First Spanish winner of the Tour De France, an all-around cycling icon.

Did I already mention Malaysian pro-democracy activist Haris Ibrahim? Well, he's dead, and my second unique hit in this update.

 

Well, and I guess this is it. It's getting a little unwieldy, isn't it?

Looks like (almost?) everyone got points in this update.... Some more than others, and the biggest winner in this update might actually be me. There's still some suspense left as most of Banana's competitors still have their joker back in hand, be it Jonnie Irwin, Johnny Ruffo, or, well, Kate Keltie.

 

Now let me see if we got another hit while I wrote this update...

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Banana	992
2	Funeralopolis	850
3	gcreptile	844
4	RadGuy	812
5	JoeyRuss	798
6	Perhaps	772
7	msc	747
8	Grim Up North	704
9	Cpt. Chorizo	702
10	Summer in Transylvania	689
11	Salmon Mousse	683
12	Book	667
13	An Fear Beag	636
14	Death Impends	586
15	ThereWillBeDeaths7	557
16	Toast	546
17	wannamaker	541
18	Buffalo Phil	535
19	DeathBecomesThem	470
20	Gooseberry Crumble	469
20	DevonDeathTrip	469
22	The Spinosaurus	468
23	The Daredevil	465
24	Joltin Joe	456
25	Drol	450
26	Mr. Wonderful	429
27	TheOldLady	416
28	GuyFromFuture	415
28	Thatcher	415
30	Wormfarmer	412
31	Sean	404
32	TheUnknownMan	403
33	TheQuimReaper	398
33	YoungWillz	398
35	Hell	395
36	Torva Messor	381
37	tracy	374
38	MortalCaso	372
39	Cpt. Hemlock	368
40	Predictor	350
41	The Old Crem	344
42	Charles De Gaulle	326
43	Etushipushingupdaisies	325
44	Annami	321
45	Diego	315
46	John Key	302
47	Liz Lemon	298
48	MariNisia	269
49	Nick	267
50	chilean way	265
51	JoeMoneypenny	254
52	CalebH	237
53	Lady Fiona	208
54	Mr. Custard	206
55	Great Uncle Bulgaria	204
56	Bibliogryphon	191
57	Pedro67	185
58	Ghostofchristmaspast	167
59	etib80	166
60	Famous6Eva	147
61	sam081	120

 

[gcreptile 10,235]

1 hour ago, Gooseberry Crumble said:

Mohammed Al Fayed a 'hit ' for me in this pool. 

@gcreptile Does this mean I now share the most hits of the year record?!

Sadly not, there are lots of other people with hits in this update. Current rankings are:

 

Funeralopolis at 18

Banana at 17

Radguy, JoeyRuss, Death Impends, Summer in Transylvania and me at 15

Gooseberry Crumble, Grim Up North, msc, Perhaps and Cpt. Chorizo at 14.

[Captain Hemlock 641]

I had both Barker and Prigozhin as mid year replacements but it doesn’t look like my score changed from last time. 

[gcreptile 10,235]

3 minutes ago, Captain Hemlock said:

I had both Barker and Prigozhin as mid year replacements but it doesn’t look like my score changed from last time. 

Damn, forgot to mark these as dead, adjusted.

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,211]

1 hour ago, gcreptile said:

Sadly not, there are lots of other people with hits in this update. Current rankings are:

 

Funeralopolis at 18

Banana at 17

Radguy, JoeyRuss, Death Impends, Summer in Transylvania and me at 15

Gooseberry Crumble, Grim Up North, msc, Perhaps and Cpt. Chorizo at 14.

Oh well there's always next week...!

[Predictor 1,007]

Ruschell Boone is a hit for me, 75 points.

[Torva Messor 252]

It took a few hours today, but a qualifying online obituary from The Independent, an allowed source for the Derby Dead Pool 2023 obituaries, for my unique Death By Numbers 2023 entry Peter C. Newman is published

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ap-toronto-ontario-belleville-harpercollins-b2407580.html

 

Peter C. Newman died 7 September 2023, aged 94. Birthdate is May 10, 1929

[Captain Hemlock 641]

1 hour ago, Torva Messor said:

It took a few hours today, but a qualifying online obituary from The Independent, an allowed source for the Derby Dead Pool 2023 obituaries, for my unique Death By Numbers 2023 entry Peter C. Newman is published

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ap-toronto-ontario-belleville-harpercollins-b2407580.html

 

Peter C. Newman died 7 September 2023, aged 94. Birthdate is May 10, 1929

 

[Toast 14,847]

Mike Yarwood is a hit for me.

[Captain Hemlock 641]

Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a hit for me.

[The Immortal 529]

Giorgio Napolitano is a hit for several of us.

[The Immortal 529]

My mid season replacement Zoleka Mandela is dead, but there hasn't been any news outside the South African press. Waiting on a proper QO here.

 

EDIT: BBC Obit

[BuffaloPhil 597]

David McCallum is a hit for me here. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-66919863

[Bibliogryphon 8,662]

Michael Gambon a hit for me here

[gcreptile 10,235]

Well thank you for all the mentions of your hits above. This makes the job fairly easy!

Anyway, I wanted to get this quick update in BEFORE the inevitable death of Chris Snow (which, honestly, is already a fact). Because right now, we have DDP and DbN in weird synchronicity that some teams have been waiting for months to cross the 100pt / 1000 pt mark, but haven't done so yet!

And yes, it's Banana's teams that would both cross these benchmarks first. We're a little slow this year, but sometimes the job is simply to be the best in an average year. But then the year isn't over, is it? I think we've still got quite some developments to come.

But for now, let's count the hits.

Predictor opes with the slam dunk yahoo obit for Ruschell Boone. Daily Mail also obliged, though. So there was no reason to worry about the obit, but only Predictor risked it.

Torva Messor scores a nice unique hit with Peter Newman. Canadian authors aren't exactly the most obitable, but the interesting biography and wide range of topics sealed the deal.

Mike Yarwood is a hit for Toast and Pedro. I seem to recall some health issues that might have turned him into a more popular hit. But then you can't often find the space for these names, luckily the Death By Numbers has lots of space!

Mangosothu Buthelezi is a unique hit for Cpt. Hemlock. He was ahead of the curve, as the health problems really only appeared in the course of this year.

Giorgio Napolitano, in contrast,  was behind his own curve for years, or something like that. 2023 was finally the year and quite a few people score.

Zoleka Mandela is the next hit. The granddaughter of Nelson Mandela was an author in her own right. As far as I can tell, she wrote biographical feel-good books. Would she have found success without her relation? Probably not, but obit by proxy works here. She was a substitution hit for The Spinosaurus, and apparently I was the only one to pick her from the outset.

Fresh from today's news, Dumbledore is dead, and also a hit. I'm not sure Michael Gambon was known for much else OUTSIDE of the UK. But within the UK, he was famous enough for the DeathList.

Finally, David McCallum is a hit for two teams, BuffaloPhil and sam081. I have to leave the obituary writing for him to other people.

 

I seem to recall that there was another picked name to die, but without obit. But if I haven't missed anything then this is the new scoreboard:

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Banana	992
2	gcreptile	924
3	Funeralopolis	875
4	RadGuy	812
5	JoeyRuss	798
6	Perhaps	772
7	msc	747
8	Grim Up North	704
9	Cpt. Chorizo	702
10	Summer in Transylvania	689
11	Salmon Mousse	683
12	Book	667
13	An Fear Beag	636
14	Toast	587
15	Death Impends	586
16	The Spinosaurus	573
17	Buffalo Phil	568
18	ThereWillBeDeaths7	557
19	wannamaker	541
20	The Daredevil	490
21	Joltin Joe	481
22	DeathBecomesThem	470
23	Gooseberry Crumble	469
23	DevonDeathTrip	469
25	Drol	450
26	Thatcher	440
27	Mr. Wonderful	429
28	TheUnknownMan	428
29	Predictor	425
30	TheOldLady	416
31	GuyFromFuture	415
32	Wormfarmer	412
33	Torva Messor	410
34	Sean	404
35	TheQuimReaper	398
35	YoungWillz	398
37	Cpt. Hemlock	396
38	Hell	395
39	tracy	374
40	MortalCaso	372
41	Charles De Gaulle	351
42	The Old Crem	344
43	Diego	340
44	John Key	327
45	Etushipushingupdaisies	325
46	Annami	321
47	Liz Lemon	298
48	chilean way	290
49	MariNisia	269
50	Nick	267
51	JoeMoneypenny	254
52	Mr. Custard	246
53	CalebH	237
54	Bibliogryphon	231
55	Pedro67	226
56	Lady Fiona	208
57	Great Uncle Bulgaria	204
58	Ghostofchristmaspast	167
59	etib80	166
60	sam081	153
61	Famous6Eva	147

[MariNisia 3,497]

1 hour ago, gcreptile said:

But if I haven't missed anything

 

@gcreptile... Well, I'm sorry, I should have told you before, but I forgot.

Heath Streak was one of my new picks, probably for more players, of the replacement period:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2023/sep/03/heath-streak-former-zimbabwe-cricket-captain-dies-aged-49

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,211]

Rosemary Squires , who is also my joker pick, is a 'hit for me in this pool.

[gcreptile 10,235]

Update time.

 

First of all, lest I forget, Heath Streak is a hit for several people. I missed that name in the previous update. The Zimbabwean cricket legend was rumoured to be gravely ill in spring, but then they said it wasn't THAT bad, but instead of having weeks left to live he had only a few months left to live. Still, one of the better mid-year substitutes, while Cale Yarborough or Bob Knight still carry on.

Biggest Australian politician to never be prime minster, Bill Hayden, is a unique hit for Salmon Mousse. Health news were getting grim this year, only SalmonMousse anticipated the decline.

I score a unique hit with magic mushroom researcher Roland Griffiths. The New York Times obit came immediately, while a DDP QO has not materialized yet.

Chris Snow of the Calgary Flames was a big hit for a few players. Proof here that I don't get an advantage for submitting early: If I had waited, I would have seen the news. But alas, he was in my DDP team, but not here.

Luis Garavito was my 2nd unique hit in this update. One of the most ...uh... prolific serial killers in history, he finally died after about 2 years of cancer, and before receiving a compassionate release. But that was a quite a story over there in Colombia.

Next hit is Rosemary Squires, another unique hit for Gooseberry Crumble, his joker as well. So he keeps on managing pretty well with a completely different set of names, 15/50 hits right now. (Funeralopolis at 19)

Martti Ahtisaari is a hit for Nick and Annami. A Finnish PM turned successful diplomat. We already knew his Alzheimer's was pretty advanced, and now it has struck.

Cpt. Chorizo scores a unique hit with Scottish football player Frank McDougall. Kind of a stochastic hit... Unique hit for Windsor in the DDP, unique hit here as well. But then, as far as I knew, his lung cancer was only at stage 2. The risk pays off, though.

Dianne Feinstein, in spite of everything, was only picked once, by Liz Lemon. So a big congratulations on that one.

 

And I hope, that's it.

Surprisingly not picked: Phyllis Coates (only a sub), Chuck Feeney.

 

Score-wise, Banana is the first one to cross 1000 pts this year, well done! I can make up for not having picked Chris Snow with the two uniques, and so I catch up. But do I have enough differentials left? My joker Johnny Ruffo is not enough. SalmonMousse scores a couple of times this update and is almost back on the podium again. 

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Banana	1073
2	gcreptile	981
3	Funeralopolis	875
4	Salmon Mousse	871
5	RadGuy	812
6	JoeyRuss	798
7	An Fear Beag	791
8	Grim Up North	785
9	Perhaps	772
10	Cpt. Chorizo	760
11	msc	747
12	Summer in Transylvania	689
13	Book	667
14	Toast	587
15	Death Impends	586
16	The Spinosaurus	573
17	Buffalo Phil	568
18	ThereWillBeDeaths7	557
19	wannamaker	541
20	Gooseberry Crumble	525
21	GuyFromFuture	496
22	The Daredevil	490
23	Joltin Joe	481
24	DeathBecomesThem	470
25	DevonDeathTrip	469
26	Drol	450
27	Thatcher	440
28	Mr. Wonderful	429
29	TheUnknownMan	428
30	Predictor	425
31	TheOldLady	416
32	Wormfarmer	412
33	Torva Messor	410
34	Sean	404
35	TheQuimReaper	398
35	YoungWillz	398
37	Cpt. Hemlock	396
38	Hell	395
39	tracy	374
40	MortalCaso	372
41	Annami	358
42	Charles De Gaulle	351
43	The Old Crem	344
44	MariNisia	343
45	Diego	340
46	Liz Lemon	331
47	John Key	327
48	Etushipushingupdaisies	325
49	Nick	304
50	chilean way	290
51	JoeMoneypenny	254
52	Mr. Custard	246
53	CalebH	237
54	Bibliogryphon	231
55	Famous6Eva	228
56	Pedro67	226
57	Lady Fiona	208
58	Great Uncle Bulgaria	204
59	Ghostofchristmaspast	167
60	etib80	166
61	sam081	153

 

[Bibliogryphon 8,662]

Matthew Perry is a hit for me here.