Dead Pool 23rd April 2017

Welcome Poolers, not a good week if you were a sportsman, many of which seemed to be dropping like flies at a young age last week. Alas nobody deemed them worthy to have been picked as Mavericks, but we do have some points to award, albeit slightly delayed. Doug pointed out that Jane Freeman of The Last of the Summer Wine fame, died in March at the age of 81. I have no idea how we missed this, but we did, so belated points to Doug!

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Michael Perham, 69, British Anglican prelate, Bishop of Gloucester (2004–2014).
• Frank Dostal, 71, German music producer and songwriter (Yes Sir, I Can Boogie).
• Yvonne Monlaur, 77, French actress (Three Strangers in Rome, Circus of Horrors, The Brides of Dracula).
• Aaron Hernandez, 27, American football player (New England Patriots) and convicted murderer, suicide by hanging.
• Cuba Gooding Sr., 72, American soul singer (The Main Ingredient).
• Germaine Mason, 34, Jamaican-born British high jumper, Olympic silver medalist (2008), traffic collision.
• Ugo Ehiogu, 44, English football player (Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, national team) and coach, heart attack.
• Michele Scarponi, 37, Italian racing cyclist, 2011 Giro d’Italia winner, traffic collision.
• Erin Moran, 56, American actress (Happy Days, Joanie Loves Chachi, Daktari).

In Other News

Renowned Italian-born conservationist Kuki Gallmann has been shot and injured in an ambush at her conservation park in central Kenya. The author of the best-selling memoir I Dreamed of Africa was airlifted to hospital for treatment. Ms Gallmann, 73, owns the Laikipia Nature Conservancy. She also ran a luxury safari lodge that was burned down last month by suspected cattle herders, who have been in conflict with landowners. Herders have been invading private property in search of fresh grazing in the drought-stricken Laikipia region. British rancher Tristan Voorspuy, who also ran a safari company, was shot dead in early March while inspecting his lodges in Laikipia. There is no confirmation of who carried out the attack on Ms Gallmann, who was reportedly shot in the stomach. She was flown by helicopter to hospital in Nairobi to undergo treatment. Police believed that attack may have been in retaliation for a police operation that killed 100 cattle in the conservancy.

The Queen has celebrated her 91st birthday by taking part in one of her favourite activities – watching the races at Newbury Racecourse. It was a more modest affair than the national festivities for her 90th birthday last year. But military salutes were held across the UK to mark the occasion – including a 21-gun salute of tiny cannons fired by children at Windsor Castle. The Queen, who reached her 65-year Sapphire Jubilee in February, is Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, which also means that the longer she survives the less points she’s worth.

An Indian hospital treating an Egyptian woman, believed to have been the world’s heaviest woman, says she has lost 250kg (550lbs) after surgery. Eman Abd El Aty’s family said she originally weighed 500kg – and was unable to leave her home for 25 years. Ms Abd El Aty underwent bariatric surgery at Mumbai’s Saifee hospital two months ago. The hospital said she could now fit into a wheelchair and sit up for longer periods of time. The hospital has released new pictures of Ms Abd El Aty following weight reduction surgery. Bariatric surgery is used as a last resort to treat people who are dangerously obese (having a body mass index of 40 or above, or 35 with other obesity-related health conditions). Dr Lakdawala said in a statement that Ms Abd El Aty continued to “rapidly” lose weight, but added that a stroke she had suffered as a child meant that she was still paralysed on one side of her body and continued to suffer convulsions. She also has difficulty speaking and swallowing. The statement added that the hospital was now waiting for her to lose enough weight for her to be able to fit inside a CT scan machine to ascertain the cause of her stroke. Ms Abd El Aty’s weight loss means she may no longer be the heaviest woman alive. The Guinness world records says the heaviest woman living is Pauline Potter in the US, who weighed 293.6 kg (643 lbs) when measured in July 2012.

On This Day

• 1016 – Edmund Ironside succeeds his father Æthelred the Unready as king of England.
• 1661 – King Charles II of England, Scotland and Ireland is crowned in Westminster Abbey.
• 1927 – Cardiff City defeat Arsenal in the FA Cup Final, the only time it has been won by a team not based in England.
• 1985 – Coca-Cola changes its formula and releases New Coke. The response is overwhelmingly negative, and the original formula is back on the market in less than three months.

Deaths

• 1616 – William Shakespeare, English actor, playwright, and poet (b. 1564)
• 1850 – William Wordsworth, English poet and author (b. 1770)
• 1983 – Buster Crabbe, American swimmer and actor (b. 1908)
• 1998 – James Earl Ray, American assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr. (b. 1928)
• 2005 – John Mills, English actor (b. 1908)
• 2007 – Boris Yeltsin, Russian politician, 1st President of Russia (b. 1931)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Jeffrey Dean Morgan (51), Amber Heard (31), Jack Nicholson (80), Sheryl Lee (50), John Waters (71), Glen Campbell (81), James McAvoy (38), Andie MacDowell (59), Tony Danza (66), Iggy Pop (70), Jessica Lange (68), Andy Serkis (53), Clint Howard (58), Carmen Electra (45), Ryan O’Neal (76), George Takei (80), Nicholas Lyndhurst (56), Leslie Phillips (93), Hayden Christensen (36), James Franco (39), Tim Curry (71), Kate Hudson (38), Ashley Judd (49), David Tennant (46), Edgar Wright (43), Hayley Mills (71), Eli Roth (45), Rick Moranis (64), James Woods (70), Conan O’Brien (54), Rooney Mara (32), Jennifer Garner (45), Sean Bean (58), David Bradley (75) and Victoria Beckham (43).