A small but perfectly formed cadre of New Year’s Eve lunchers attended B Bar, AKA Baroosh, today to hear the results of my predictions for the year now blowing damply into the North Sea.
As ever, the tall but perfectly drunk Chris Walsh adjudicated. A double-check showed he gave me a point more than I deserved, which I’ve corrected. Commentary etc in square brackets.
News
- ✗ There is more than one UK general election.
- ✗ After one of the general elections, speaker John Bercow is deposed.
- ✗ The royal child-beast is of the girl persuasion, and called Elizabeth. [Charlotte Elizabeth Diana]
- ✓ Hillary Clinton confirms she will run for US President.
- ✗ Kim Jong Un is deposed as leader of North Korea.
- ✗ The record for the highest temperature in the UK is broken.
[Score: 1/6]
Sport
- ✗ Sepp Blatter is not re-elected as president of FIFA. [Re-elected, but then suspended]
- ✓ Chelsea win the English Premier League.
- ✗ Australia retain the Ashes. [Chris marked this one right, but it wasn’t]
- ✗ Germany win the women’s football World Cup in Canada. [USA]
- ✓ Oxford wins the University Boat Race, again.
- ✗ Cyprus comes top of the medal table in the keenly anticipated Games of the Small States of Europe in Reykjavik. [Iceland]
[Score: 2/6]
Science and technology
- ✗ Apple releases a MacBook Air with a retina display.
- ✗ The Dawn spacecraft discovers ice volcanoes on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres.
- ✓ The probe Philae on the surface of comet 67P emerges from hibernation sufficiently to send useful scientific data.
- ✗ Microsoft buys Fitbit. [IPO]
- ✓ Dick Costolo leaves his position as CEO of Twitter.
- ✗ YouTube users upload over 500 hours of video per minute on average. [Who knows?]
[Score: 2/6]
Entertainment
- ✗ Best Actor Oscar: Michael Keaton, Birdman. [Eddie Redmayne]
- ✓ Best Actress Oscar: Julianne Moore, Still Alice.
- ✓ Best Picture Oscar: Birdman.
- ✗ Best Director Oscar: Richard Linklater, Boyhood. [Birdman]
- ✓ Best Visual Effects Oscar: Interstellar.
- ✗ The BBC says BBC 4 will follow BBC 3 and move online.
[Score: 3/6]
Celebrity deathwatch
- ✗ Dodgy FIFA boss before the other dodgy FIFA boss, João Havelange (98)
- ✓ Avenger before the other Avengers, actor Patrick Macnee (92)
- ✓ Dracula, Scaramanga, Saruman, Dooku, actor Christopher Lee (92)
- ✗ I’ve met him you know, comics elder Stan Lee (92)
- ✗ President Bush before the other President Bush, George HW Bush (90)
- ✓ Spock before the other Spock, actor Leonard Nimoy (82)
- ✗ Run out, umpire Dickie Bird (81)
- ✗ War criminal, ex-veep Dick Cheney (73)
- ✗ Floating like an ex-butterfly, stinging like an ex-bee, boxer Muhammad Ali (72)
[Score: 3/9]
[Total score: 11/33 = 33% – up on last years 22%, but some way short of 2013’s 50%!]
Stay tuned to this bat-channel for Avaragado’s predictions for 2016.
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