Death By Numbers 2024

[YoungWillz 19,100]

Cannot see my team, I’m on my phone and I don’t know how to resize. I’ll just assume my team is fine and there until I can computer up. 

[msc 17,762]

2 hours ago, YoungWillz said:

Cannot see my team, I’m on my phone and I don’t know how to resize. I’ll just assume my team is fine and there until I can computer up. 

 

You are there next to Gooseberry and Liz Lemon, worry not.

[Book 3,352]

Andy Taylor 16.02.1961

Bajrakitiyabha, Princess of Thailand 07.12.1978

Bruce Willis 19.03.1955

Christiane F. 20.05.1962

Christoph Daum 24.10.1953

Danny Estrin 20.12.1981

Derek Draper 15.08.1967 - 03.01.2024

Erik Jensen 20.07.1970

Esther Rantzen 22.06.1940

Eugenia Cooney 27.07.1994

Fedez 15.10.1989

Françoise Hardy 17.01.1944

Frank Field 16.07.1942 - 23.04.2024

Franz Beckenbauer 11.09.1945 - 07.01.2024

James Whale 13.05.1951

Jason Becker 22.07.1969

Jason Smith (Newcastle councillor) 3/73 - 23.01.2024

Jeanette Lee 09.07.1971

Joe Doering 16.04.1982

Joe Kinnear 27.12.1946 - 07.04.2024

John Ashton 30.11.1957

Jonnie Irwin 18.11.1973 - 02.02.2024    JOKER

Kate Micucci 31.03.1980

Ken Hudson Campbell 05.06.1962

Linda Nolan 23.02.1959

Linda Ronstadt 15.07.1946

Liza Minnelli 12.03.1946

Marianne Faithfull 29.12.1946

Michael Schumacher 03.01.1969

Michael Tilson Thomas 21.12.1944

Mike Peters (The Alarm) 25.02.1959

Niels Olsen 13.04.1954

Nigel Starmer-Smith 25.12.1944

Norm Coleman 17.08.1949

Paul Spencer (Dario G) 1971

Rainer Langhans 19.06.1940

Rob Bolland 17.04.1955

Rob Burrow 26.09.1982

Roberta Flack 10.02.1937

Ronnie Atkins 16.11.1964

Shannen Doherty 12.04.1971

Simon Cowell (SOS) 19.04.1952

Stan Bowles 24.12.1948 - 24.02.2024

Stephen Darby 06.10.1988

Steve Gleason 19.03.1977

Steve McMichael 17.10.1957

Theo Burrell 9/86

Tim Bilton 1972

Toby Keith 08.07.1961 - 05.02.2024

[The Immortal 529]

Glynis Johns is a hit here

[theoldlady 1,994]

Derek Draper is also a hit here.

[Captain Hemlock 641]

Joyce Randolph is my first hit of the year

[gcreptile 10,235]

It's time for the first update of the year.

 

Let's start with the three DeathList hits, Glynis Johns, Franz Beckenbauer and Derek Draper. Obviously, Draper is a huge hit in this competition. Several players even score joker points. You might not have risked him in a Top 20 list, but most top 50 lists had space for him. Beckenbauer was almost as popular as Draper, though too old to be a joker. His quick death barely into 2024 was even surprising to me, even though I pretty definitely knew that 2024 was going to be his final year.

Finally, Glynis Johns, a classic deadpooling pick who is a welcome score booster for a lot of teams who might not go for the usual ambulance chasing.

 

Next hit, Brian Barzcyk, Reptile enthusiast. His decline almost seemed to be accelerating by the day. He was already a cult pick during the 2023 DeathList Cup, where he was picked regularly by DevonDeathTrip. He survived that season very well, and looked to be in good shape, judging from the lively videos throughout the year. But since November, he was definitely on the way out and just barely managed to reach 2024.

 

Three teams score with previously immortal Mario Zagallo. He looked like death warmed up for years, but really managed to reach an age that footballers hardly do. Seriously, are there any other top football players in their 90s? Personally, I suspect that drugs, steroids, exercise, bad nutrition, and so on shorten the lives of top athletes. Franz Beckenbauer at 78 was also not that old, and still managed to die from Parkinson/heart problems/eye stroke/basically everything. 

 

Next hit is socialist director, and more importantly (...) Kate Beckinsale's step father, Roy Battersby. A hit for several teams. At least, he also got a few obits that pointed out his own achievements, not just his relation to Beckinsale. For example, a Guardian obit.

 

Now, Joyce Randolph. We've sort of moved from "last famous people famous before WW2", via "last famous people during WW II", to "last famous people of the 50s". Being famous in the 50s already seems like an historical outlier, when it's now the 60s stars that appear on the Deathlist (like Eastwood or Hackman, the former had the breakthrough with Rawhide in 1959, the latter had a slow 60s until he got the Oscar nomination in 1967). Now, Joyce Randolph, last living star of The Honeymooners, dies and is a hit for two teams, Cpt. Hemlock and The Unknown Man.

 

As far as I can tell, those are the hits. But if I missed anyone tell me. I haven't yet got the names of this competition memorized, so it's likely that a name slips through.

 

Now, in other news:

You saw the disqualifications from the DDP. As the rules state, the disqualifications of the DDP also apply here. Cricket player Jonathan Mills and Bruce Murray of Home and Away got disqualified, several players are victims, me (x2), Wannamaker, RadGuy, msc and Cpt. Chorizo. I have replaced them with your first subs in my excel file. I will adjust the masterlist shortly. My own two subs for Mills and Murray are astronaut Tom Stafford and ice hockey coach Mike Sertich.

 

The resulting scoreboard sees Perhaps with a super-sprint out front. RadGuy and me a bit behind. Franz Beckenbauer was a valuable differential. Perhaps hit almost every target.

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Perhaps	271
2	gcreptile	217
2	RadGuy	217
4	Cpt. Chorizo	212
5	Caleb H	203
6	The Immortal	188
7	Mr. Wonderful	181
8	The Unknown Man	159
9	Yorkshire Banker	157
9	Book	157
11	Salmon Mousse	148
11	Funeralopolis	148
13	Baby Blue	136
13	msc	136
13	Banana	136
13	wannamaker	136
17	The old lady	134
17	Death Impends	134
19	DeathBecomesThem	112
19	Imelda	112
19	Toast	112
19	Pedro67	112
19	tracy	112
24	Cpt. Hemlock	93
25	Lady Fiona	90
25	Summer in Transilvania	90
27	An Fear Beag	69
28	The Old Crem	68
28	The Daredevil	68
30	ThereWillBeDeaths7	67
30	Diego	67
30	John Key	67
30	arghton	67
30	Thatcher	67
30	MariNisia	67
30	Buffalo Phil	67
30	Sean	67
30	Wormfarmer	67
39	Charles De Gaulle	45
39	Etushipushingupdaisies	45
41	Hell	23
41	TQR	23
41	Liz Lemon	23
41	chileanway	23
41	Annami	23
46	Bibliogryphon	0
46	Great Uncle Bulgaria	0
46	Gooseberry Crumble	0
46	Young Willz	0
46	Predictor	0
46	Sod's Law	0
46	Torva Messor	0

 

[Captain Hemlock 641]

Charles Osgood is a hit for me

[Perhaps 1,367]

Aston Barrett is a hit for me here, stupidly submitted under ‘Ashton’ instead. 

[gcreptile 10,235]

Where were we?

Ah yes, well, no more DeathList names but Jonnie Irwin. One of the most popular names this year and a safe and sound joker pick for ten teams. I don't have the statistic available, but he's probably the most popular joker, and possibly the most popular pick.

Then, the two names above, thanks for mentioning. Aston Barrett was a member of Bob Marley's reggae troupe and quite the big name in his own right. The forum knew of his health problems but the question was if it was actually that bad or whether the gofundme was a scam. Well, Perhaps knew better than anyone else (except for the spelling ;), but if you write the name like that Google suggests Aston instead....)

Charles Osgood was a traditional US TV host and voice actor, a career in radio, the army, then friendly shows like CBS News Sunday Morning. He's Cpt Hemlock's first unique hit of the year. Let's see how often I am going to mention unique hits for Cpt Hemlock and Gooseberry Crumble this time....

Don Murray was another traditional US figure but he extended his career up to the Twin Peaks revival in 2017, 61 years after his breakout role in Bus Stop. That's a LONG time. He's a unique hit for Torva Messor.

Next hit is Stuart Gray, and I simply assume that everybody who picked this name meant the 1973 born Scottish player and DDP hit. 8 teams score.

Roger Donlon is the next hit, going back through the DDP pages... A military history footnote for his Vietnam War Medal of Honor. Three teams score.

Now Jason Smith.... not the US congressman currrently in the news, but the local British councilman who was in the BBC news two times, for his cancer diagnosis. I'm not going to lie.... for the DeathList Cup rules I added that I would allow elected politicians on every level because I wanted to give the "permission" to pick Jason Smith. In this competition, he would have also fallen under the rule that BBC coverage in every form will make marginal picks legit. That's what he was, a marginal pick, but one that falls on the legit side of the fence.

 

And I think this is it.

The scoreboard shows that the top 4 spots are unchanged. Funnily, RadGuy and me are still on the same score even with different hits. Only two teams are left without points now. This game seems to be moving at a faster speed so maybe we can finally surpass the years-old score record of DevonDeathTrip?

 

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Perhaps	463
2	gcreptile	436
2	RadGuy	436
4	Cpt. Chorizo	431
5	Banana	428
6	Funeralopolis	401
7	Book	376
8	msc	355
8	wannamaker	355
10	Toast	331
11	The Immortal	295
12	Baby Blue	282
13	Caleb H	276
14	Etushipushingupdaisies	264
15	DeathBecomesThem	258
15	Pedro67	258
15	tracy	258
18	Mr. Wonderful	254
19	The Unknown Man	232
20	Salmon Mousse	221
21	Thatcher	213
22	The old lady	207
22	Death Impends	207
24	Summer in Transilvania	197
25	Imelda	185
26	Liz Lemon	169
27	Lady Fiona	163
28	Yorkshire Banker	157
29	Bibliogryphon	146
30	An Fear Beag	142
31	The Old Crem	141
31	The Daredevil	141
33	ThereWillBeDeaths7	140
33	Diego	140
33	John Key	140
33	MariNisia	140
33	Buffalo Phil	140
33	Wormfarmer	140
39	Cpt. Hemlock	126
40	Charles De Gaulle	118
41	TQR	96
42	Great Uncle Bulgaria	73
42	Young Willz	73
42	Predictor	73
45	arghton	67
45	Sean	67
47	Torva Messor	29
48	Hell	23
48	chileanway	23
48	Annami	23
51	Gooseberry Crumble	0
51	Sod's Law	0

[MrWonderful 412]

Toby Keith is a hit for me, and likely a few others too, without looking.  

[Gooseberry Crumble 5,211]

The death of the former prime minister of Holland Dries vsn agt  , gives me my first 'hit' in this pool. 

[ladyfiona 2,042]

So upon double checking something for A-Z Deadpool. I've seen on Google that Ngethe Njoroge died on 24th December. The only confirmation I have is a Facebook post and here.

 

@gcreptile

 

I guess this is where my sub Dick Van Dyke gets activated?

[BuffaloPhil 597]

Looks like Alexei Navalny is a nice little hit for me here, picking up the "Most Surprising Death by Natural Causes" award (sponsored by Vladimir Putin.)

[The Daredevil 1,097]

Charles Dierkop is a unique hit for me.

[YoungWillz 19,100]

2 hours ago, The Daredevil said:

Charles Dierkop is a unique hit for me.

Had to search for one but have a QO: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/news/charles-dierkop-actor-butch-cassidy-181814961.html

 

[Bibliogryphon 8,662]

Dave Myers is a hit for me here

[Toast 14,847]

15 minutes ago, Bibliogryphon said:

Dave Myers is a hit for me here

 

And most of us, probably.  I had Stan Bowles as well.

[gcreptile 10,235]

Time for an update, I hope to have them more than once a month, but life interferes.... I think that things change a little...after March.

Anyway, let's start with the names mentioned above.

Toby Keith, 90s mainstream country mega star, picked here by 15 teams. I kind of confused myself there, thinking it was early stage cancer, but now I see that my notes actually say that it was stage III, so it was a 50:50 chance, roughly. I see that he was picked mostly at slots 41-50 for many teams, so you players were right, he should at least have been picked as a defensive pick.

Dave Myers was picked by 14 teams, many of the teams actually went for the Keith/Myers double. The warning signs here came pretty late in 2023 because the chemo cycles just kept going up in numbers. Myers marks another entry in the long list of cooks with terminal cancer.

Dries van Agt dies in the act .... of suicide. I did occasionally think about adding DDP-like bonusses here, but then, the pool is already quite the monster to handle. Two teams score, Gooseberry Crumble and CalebH.

Now Alexej Nawalny, a death as sad as it was inevitable, possibly unnatural, but we will probably never know. Three people score - it just seemed to be in the air. By the way, Alexej Nawalny was the earliest living entry in my personal excel longlist, at no. 7, the "honor" now moves to Charlie Sheen at no. 8.

Now Charlies Dierkop, a unique hit for The Daredevil. I don't really know much about him, he seems to have been booked and blessed, but never was a real star.

 

Now, let's go back through the DDP list:

Iris Apfel is the freshest hit (she wasn't exactly fresh anymore herself)... I kind of confuse her with Baddie Winkle. But Apfel was the one who didn't just wear the stylish clothes she also made them. Two teams score.

Paul Vachon, the canadian wrestler from the Vachon wrestling family was a hit for three teams. His age is quite remarkable for a wrestler, and the diseases just kept piling up. It was time.

Next hit, next wrestler, Virgil, actually a unique hit for BabyBlue, well done! He seemed to have the more illustrious career when compared to Vachon, which explains his "Legend" status in the obits. Well, I wouldn't know unfortunately.

Also dead, the longtime deadpooling staple Stan Bowles. I thought he looked like shit ages ago, but he managed to defy my and our expectations again and again. Three teams didn't lose faith.

Now Ian McMillan, a star of Scottish football in the 60s. A hit for three teams. It gives me the opportunity to correct his entry in my longlist, I guess you all didn't pick the poet...

Alexis Buchman. If the DDP doesn't go ahead, I will. The Yahoo QO rule will be altered in the next year. I am not yet exactly sure how, but the super-local specific Yahoo obits will go away.

And finally, Seiji Ozawa. The japanese conductor had been suffering from Alzheimer's for a while and I personally regret not picking him, but many of you did! He wonder if Ozawa's hair was just his marketing, because you've got to stand out when you do such a perfomative job, and well, this way he did give off an eccentric air that made him very prominent.

 

And now, I have a feeling that there is surely a hit or two still out there, but I haven't had a look at Wikipedia yet, and need to go out for a bit.

 

Lady Fiona, your dead name has been subbed with Dick Van Dyke.

 

The scoreboard shows a lot of upheaval, Funeralopolis moving up similarly to last year, Toast getting a huge boost from the Keith/Myers combo, much like Book one place below her.

All teams have now scored, which is always nice to see.

But at the top, Perhaps defends his position. I have dropped 7 places and am the big loser of this update... Cpt. Chorizo is on the attack and has almost caught Perhaps

 

Rank	Team	Score
1	Perhaps	581
2	Cpt. Chorizo	564
3	Banana	516
4	RadGuy	497
5	Funeralopolis	493
6	wannamaker	473
7	Toast	449
8	Book	437
9	gcreptile	436
10	msc	392
11	Pedro67	376
12	Baby Blue	375
13	Mr. Wonderful	372
14	The Immortal	356
15	tracy	354
16	Summer in Transilvania	350
17	Caleb H	338
18	Etushipushingupdaisies	325
19	DeathBecomesThem	315
20	MariNisia	295
21	The Unknown Man	293
22	Salmon Mousse	278
23	Buffalo Phil	277
24	The old lady	268
24	Death Impends	268
26	Liz Lemon	230
27	Lady Fiona	224
28	Thatcher	213
29	Bibliogryphon	203
29	An Fear Beag	203
31	The Old Crem	202
32	ThereWillBeDeaths7	201
32	John Key	201
34	Yorkshire Banker	188
35	Cpt. Hemlock	187
36	Imelda	185
37	Charles De Gaulle	179
38	The Daredevil	177
39	TQR	153
40	Diego	140
40	Wormfarmer	140
42	Predictor	134
43	Sean	128
44	Annami	99
45	Sod's Law	76
46	Great Uncle Bulgaria	73
46	Young Willz	73
48	arghton	67
49	Gooseberry Crumble	31
50	Torva Messor	29
51	Hell	23
51	chileanway	23

 

[Toast 14,847]

Thanks .... Slightly confused by your comment re Toby Keith:

"I see that he was picked mostly at slots 41-50 for many teams, so you players were right, he should at least have been picked as a defensive pick."

There wasn't any significance in the order, was there, or did I miss something?  My picks are in alphabetical order by surname. 

[gcreptile 10,235]

3 minutes ago, Toast said:

Thanks .... Slightly confused by your comment re Toby Keith:

"I see that he was picked mostly at slots 41-50 for many teams, so you players were right, he should at least have been picked as a defensive pick."

There wasn't any significance in the order, was there, or did I miss something?  My picks are in alphabetical order by surname. 

Not every team was alphabetical though. I have the game in excel and use the search function to look for a name. Excel allows you to go through all the hits for the word you search for, on the same sheet, from the top to the bottom.

I just saw that Toby Keith was usually one of the final names on these teams.

Personally, I often fill out the teams in order of certainty - though premature deaths or news can disrupt the order.

[Toast 14,847]

When the order doesn't affect scoring (as it does in HPDP, Windy City etc) I put mine in alphabetical order as it's easiest to check whether you have a particular person in that pool.

[Banana 855]

Shouldn't I be at 530?

 

I think you have the wrong YOB for Stuart Gray. The one that died was 1973, not the 1960 guy.

[gcreptile 10,235]

It's a problem with Buchman's birthyear which my Excel file has as 1988 for some reason. It will be fixed.

[Torva Messor 252]

 

Quote

And now, I have a feeling that there is surely a hit or two still out there, but I haven't had a look at Wikipedia yet, and need to go out for a bit.

 

For the next update, Iris Apfel is a very recent hit for me, to add to the score given for Don Murray.