Dead Pool 26th October 2014

Welcome all, a very eventful week in the world of  celebrity deaths, however nobody scored a single point, we all really need to try harder! With little over two months left to play, the scoring has been abysmal this year, either celebrities are getting hardier or we’re simply not good enough at predicting their expiry dates. Let’s hope that the upcoming cold weather reaps a few on our lists, but I suppose celebrities don’t have to worry about heating bills…

Look Who You Could Have Had:

• Mick Burt, British drummer (Chas & Dave), Parkinson’s disease and dementia.
• Lynda Bellingham, 66, Canadian-born British actress (Doctor Who, General Hospital, The Bill), colon cancer.
• Gerard Parkes, 90, Irish-born Canadian actor (Fraggle Rock, The Boondock Saints).
• Raphael Ravenscroft, 60, British saxophonist (“Baker Street“) and author, suspected heart attack.
• John Holt, 67, Jamaican singer (The Paragons) and songwriter (“The Tide Is High”).
• Alvin Stardust, 72, English singer (“My Coo Ca Choo”).
• David Redfern, 78, English photographer, cancer.
• Jack Bruce, 71, Scottish bassist (Cream, Manfred Mann, John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers) and composer, liver disease.

In Other News

Tottenham Hotspur have said they are supporting former football star Paul Gascoigne after it was reported he had been placed on an emergency three-day detox. Medics sectioned the 47-year-old under the Mental Health Act at 3am on Friday after a drinking binge. His close friend and former Spurs team-mate Gary Mabbutt said: “Paul hasn’t been well for the past couple of weeks, he wants to get better and he’s asked for help. He is being looked after very well – he has got a lot of support around him.” Police were called to Gascoigne’s home in Poole, Dorset, at around 3.30pm on Thursday, but something must have happened in-between then and his sectioning at 3am, perhaps he tried an early points score on the Dead Pool?

Bad news for a few Poolers, former Dr Feelgood guitarist Wilko Johnson says he has been “cured” of the terminal pancreatic cancer with which he was diagnosed in 2012. The 67-year-old was initially given 10 months to live after rejecting chemotherapy, but had radical surgery to remove the tumour earlier this year. After an 11 hour operation to remove 3kg of tumour, his pancreas, spleen, part of his stomach, small and large intestines and the removal and reconstruction of blood vessels relating to the liver, Wilko, or what’s left of him, had accepted he was going to die, but now he’s disappointing everyone by pulling through. The lucky bastard!

A footballer has died of injuries he sustained after landing awkwardly while celebrating a goal during a state-level league match in India, the organisers of the Mizoram Premier League have announced. Peter Biaksangzuala, a midfielder for Bethlehem Vengthlang, a club based in the north east of the country, damaged his spinal cord after attempting a series of somersaults to celebrate his equaliser in the fixture against Chanmari West last Tuesday. That’ll teach him!

In more bad news for us, a doctor who treated Michael Schumacher for nearly six months after his brain injury in a skiing accident says the F1 champion has made “some progress”. Jean-Francois Payen, a doctor at the French hospital in Grenoble where he was treated, warned that any recovery would take time. The typical convalescence period was one to three years, he suggested. “I have noted some progress but I would say we should give him time,” he said. Asked about the chances of Schumacher making a recovery, he only referred to a time frame for patients with similar brain injuries. “It’s like for other patients, we are on a timescale which goes from one year to three years and we need to be patient.” Bah!

On This Day

• 1775 – King George III of Great Britain goes before Parliament to declare the American colonies in rebellion, and authorized a military response to quell the American Revolution.
• 1861 – The Pony Express officially ceases operations.
• 1881 – The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral takes place at Tombstone, Arizona.
• 1985 – The Australian government returns ownership of Uluru to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines.
• 2002 – Moscow theater hostage crisis: Approximately 50 Chechen terrorists and 150 hostages die when Russian Spetsnaz storm a theater building in Moscow, which had been occupied by the terrorists during a musical performance three days before.

Deaths

• 899 – Alfred the Great, English king (b. 849)
• 1764 – William Hogarth, English painter and engraver (b. 1697)

Last Week’s Birthdays

Katy Perry (30), Jeff Goldblum (62), Kim Kardashian (34), Ryan Reynolds (38), Carrie Fisher (58), Catherine Deneuve (71), Weird Al Yankovic (55), Kevin Kline (67), Tom Petty (64), Snoop Dogg (42), Pele (74), Christopher Lloyd (76), John Lithgow (69), Jesse Tyler Ferguson (39), Evander Holyfield (52), Viggo Mortensen (56), Ken Watanabe (54), Ang Lee (60) and Cat Deeley (38).

Next Week peeps!