Dead Pool 21st December 2014

Welcome all to the penultimate newsletter of the year!! Yes, we’re very close to declaring the winner for 2014 and unless something drastic happens it looks like Lee is taking the crown this year! I’m sure that all of you are busy working on your lists for next year, I’ve already got five submitted so far, feel free to submit yours too. Also, please take the time to pass on the rules to your friends, the more the merrier, hopefully we can break the 50 members mark this year.

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Norman Bridwell, 86, American author and cartoonist (Clifford the Big Red Dog).
• Phil Stern, 95, American photographer, emphysema and heart failure.
• Booth Colman, 91, American actor (Planet of the Apes, Norma Rae, Intolerable Cruelty).
• Larry Henley, 77, American singer (The Newbeats) and songwriter (“Wind Beneath My Wings”).
• Mandy Rice-Davies, 70, British model, figure in the Profumo affair, cancer.
• Larry Smith, 63, American record producer (Run–D.M.C., King of Rock).

In Other News

Ali Carter has been given the all-clear seven months after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. The 35-year-old, twice a World Championship runner-up, recovered from testicular cancer last year and is aiming to resume his career. “Two beautiful words that I’ve been waiting for ‘all clear’,” Carter tweeted on Friday. “I can now concentrate on getting my life and career back. I will be glad when this year is over. Some better things to come in 2015 … #hopefully” Fair play to him, but with two bouts of cancer behind him, we’d best keep an eye out for the third.

Anthony Crolla, the WBO inter-continental lightweight title  holder, was taken to hospital after confronting burglars who were raiding a neighbour’s house in Chadderton near Oldham on Tuesday evening. The 28-year-old is understood to have broken an ankle and suffered a serious head injury after chasing the two burglars. Crolla caught one of the intruders, according to the Manchester Evening News, but was then attacked by the other with a brick or a lump of concrete. Known as ‘Million Dolla Crolla’, the WBO inter-continental lightweight title holder had been due to face the Cuban Richard Abril on 23rd January for the WBA world title, but due to his  injuries, the fight will no longer take place.

The rock band The Who have postponed two concerts in London as frontman Roger Daltrey is suffering from a throat infection. The singer has been ordered to rest by doctors. The shows, due to take place on Wednesday and Thursday at the O2 Arena, have been pushed back to March. The band are currently on their The Who Hits 50 tour, celebrating their 50th anniversary. Daltrey, 70, admitted that touring was “incredibly tough on the body” and suggested these could be The Who’s last major live shows. “This is the beginning of the long goodbye,” he said.

A judge has refused to delay Tracy Morgan’s legal action against retail giant Walmart over a car crash in which the 30 Rock comedian was injured. He is claiming compensation from the retailer for negligence in requiring the driver to drive while fatigued. He had not slept for more than 24 hours when he collided with Morgan’s limousine according to court papers. Comedian James McNair died in the crash, while Morgan suffered a traumatic brain injury and broken bones. Morgan’s attorney, Benedict Morelli has said the 46-year-old is “fighting to get better” but it is uncertain whether he will fully recover.

On This Day

• 1620 – Plymouth Colony: William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land on what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
• 1913 – Arthur Wynne‘s “word-cross”, the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.
• 1937 – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world’s first full-length animated feature, premieres at the Carthay Circle Theatre.
• 1967 – Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.
• 1968 – Apollo program: Apollo 8 is launched from the Kennedy Space Center, placing its crew on a lunar trajectory for the first visit to another celestial body by humans.
• 1988 – A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.
• 2012 – The world was predicted to end on December 21, 2012 according to some calendars.

Deaths

• 1907 – Klara Hitler, mother of Austrian-born German dictator Adolf Hitler (b. 1860)
• 1940 – F. Scott Fitzgerald, American author and poet (b. 1896)
• 1945 – George S. Patton, American general (b. 1885)
• 2013 – David Coleman, English sportscaster and game show host (b. 1926)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Brad Pitt (51), Jonah Hill (31), Keith Richards (71), Ray Liotta (60), Don Johnson (65), Milla Jovovich (39), Steven Spielberg (68), Katie Holmes (35), Jake Gyllenhaal (34), Christina Aguilera (34), Pope Francis (78), Alyssa Milano (42), Kristy Swanson (45), Bill Pullman (61), Jennifer Beals (51), Steve Austin (50), Patty Duke (68), Eugene Levy (68), Leonard Maltin (64) and Billy Bragg (57).

2014 League Table

[confidential]

Next week peeps!