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It would seem Thatcher and Mandela have a lot of friends in the Death Pool.

The 2013 competition has once again attracted 14 players for some morbid fun and games, with only two of those omitting the Iron Lady, while Mr Mandela is the clear 2nd favourite.

You can now view everyone's selections via the link on the top left of this page. I think they all seem genuine enough, but let me know if you think anyone is stretching the boundaries of the term "celebrity". Having seen some of the CBB intro this evening I don't think the moniker takes much getting these days.

We have one person electing to play for fun only (Mr Anonymous) so far, and I'll be tapping up the others who have yet to contribute tomorrow.  However it looks like we'll have 13 x £10 in the pot this year, so will likely go for a £90/£40 split of the spoils for 1st and 2nd places.  I'll confirm that once all the cash is safely collected.

Best of luck and keep an eye on those obits - especially those with sneaky obscure foreigners in your ranks. You gotta claim it to get the points!

Death Pool GamesMaster

It's official, Alex has topped the Death Pool table for the second consecutive year and has proved himself the expert on celebrity deaths. A proud assertion no doubt.

A couple of people had former TV GamesMaster Patrick Moore on their lists, who lost the game of life yesterday at 89 years of age. The rules state that December deaths don't count for the competition, although I don't think it would have made a difference to the standings anyway. Next year we'll be getting rid of that rule though as it's a bit pointless - so Jan 1st to Dec 31st can be fully spent eagerly watching the obituaries.

Anyhow, congrats to Alex who has £90 on the way over to help with the Christmas shopping. Yours truly also managed to bag £40 for the runner up spot.

I'll be in touch in the next week or two to let you know the procedure for getting your 2013 entries in - so start getting that research in early. Let me know if you know anyone else who'd like to receive an invite to the contest.

Mae you rest in peace

Just as things were winding down for a fairly uneventful 2012 in the world of Death Pool, there has been a twist in the tale!

It turns out that one of my selections actually slipped away in her sleep back in January, although clearly didn't cause much of a stir this side of the Atlantic.  The super old actress Mae Laborde has not been with us for many months now but has only just made her mark on the spreadsheet.  A rather miserly 4 points gained for the 102 year old, but a tasty 5 bonus points for being a unique selection.

This may be a good time to put Google into action and make sure none of your selections are worm food already.  You only have until next week to make your claim as we wind things up at the end of November. Tick tock.

Sunday Night Fever

Like the proverbial buses, you wait for one celebrity death to come along and then a few arrive all at once.

On Thursday the news broke that singer Donna Summer had died of cancer, with the Daily Mail gleefully adding a ridiculous subtext involving the inhalation of 9/11 toxic particles.  No points gained by the death poolers though.

However Sunday was the big one.  Having been mailing/texting me "Lockerbie Bomber" updates since last year's competition, Alex can finally lay claim to his oddly unique selection of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi who had been hanging on for a while.

In fact, Alex has managed to shoot to the top of the table having bagged a double death this weekend, with one of the 2012 favourites also dropping off the radar.  Bee Gee co-founder Robin Gibb will be Stayin' Alive no more, and has contributed points to four members and helped to shake up the leaderboard after a period of inactivity.

Is this the way to Amarillo

This is what you get for overanalysing.  Last year I had poker player "Amarillo Slim" Preston on my list but decided he wasn't worthy of a Top 10 listing this time around.

However he finally folded his hand (boom boom) at the end of April so will be one that got away for me.  There are probably a few of you wondering if he was actually famous enough for this competition so here's his Guardian obituary for the curious.

All the more frustrating as this is a ridiculously quiet year so far.  Surely Maggie Thatcher and that Bee Gees guy can't last much longer?!

There's all to play for still as no one is really that far ahead.  There are 13 paid up members so we'll be playing Top 2 places, with £90 for 1st and £40 for 2nd.

Good luck!

Waiting to Exhale

There are a good number of addicts within our lists this year, but only the one person had Whitney Houston.  Congrats to Claire for bagging a near maximum 10 pointer for the 48 year old, as well as notching 5 bonus points for having her as a unique selection.

In typical US style they will probably now spend weeks fighting over the cause of death so we'll leave the "unnatural causes" award pending, although I'm assuming a body ravaged with years of drugs and alcohol abuse was gonna give up the ghost eventually without much extra help.  I don't think a bodyguard would have helped anyway.

This raises a point I argued about with one of our members at the start of the year though - does a long-term junkie dying of their final hit count as "unnatural causes" for an overdose?  I didn't award the points to Amy Winehouse last year as felt that someone like that it was more about the long term damage taking it's toll rather than a one off - like an alcoholic dying of liver failure.  The straw that broke the camels back if you will.

Obviously if someone like David Beckham or David Cameron suddenly keeled over having eaten a bottle of sleeping pills then that would be a slam dunk.

Let me know what you think.

Etta James Foursome

So a few people have managed to get off the mark nice and early this year, with research into the critically ill paying off handsomely.

Singer Etta James had managed to collect a pretty nasty trifecta of illnesses over the past few years; Alzheimer's, MRSA, and Leukemia - so it didn't really come as a massive surprise when she gave up the ghost on Jan 20th.  Quite surprising only four people had her in the end really when she was top of the deathlist.

I'm not quite sure how she managed to release a final album in November 2011, but it sounds like a poor move really by her promoters.  These artists always sell much better when the sympathy vote is out in full force, so when they spotted her withering away they should have hung on for another couple of months.

Best keep that Thatcher rap album under wraps for a bit longer still.