Jade & Ian were underscored tonight. There deserved at least 3 8's.

Ali & Brian were over scored, it was technically perfect, but the Ali lacked the soul & energy that a Salsa requires

The aforementioend couples should have been given the same scores.

Ricky W deserved a higher mark as well..

Apart from the stingy marks for Jade, I thought the rest of the scores were about right.

I have to agree I thought Jade & Ian were undermarked, & Ian's comments were justified. Unusual for him too! Otherwise I thought perhaps Laila was a bit overmarked for what it was. It was nice, but not fantastic. I thought Zoe's FT was better.

Jade and Ricky W performed well, but their choreography wasn't all that difficult. Some of Ricky's moves were cringeworthy at times. I thought that Ali performed as well as she could given the difficult routine. She more than coped with some very difficult moves, so I don't think she was overscored at all.

While I agree Jade was underscored tonight, I don't think she should be scored in the same league as Ali. Ali danced to the full salsa content, almost like a proper masterclass. Yes, due to the difficulty of the choreography, she may not have performed it as fully as she was capable, but I thought she was smashing.

I think Jade should have two sevens and two eights, scoring a total of 30.

Zoe was definitedly overscored tonight. I can't believe she was only one point behind Laila's foxtrot. Laila was scored just about right (considering she made YET another small mistake in the routine this time).

Ricky shouldn't be scored higher. In fact, due to the repeating of one chunk of the routine, the 'Andrew Castle' move twice, and the messing up in the end, he should be scored LOWER than Ali tonight.

I thought Laila and Anton's foxtrot deserved to top the leaderboard - it was everything the FT should be.

I thought Zoe and James were overmarked - their FT was just too frantic.

Jade and Ian were definitely undermarked. They deserved to be second on the board tonight.

Havn't got to Jade on the DVD yet but thats not how I see anything so far. The judges coming up with an argument why not to give Ali 9s doesn't make the argument true however much its repeated . Her content was far more difficult than the people who got 9s and it wasn't possible to sell it more when there was another complicated move coming up a second later. Half of her moves could have ended up in locked arms , so its no wonder if she had to concentrate more . They are not crediting difficulty.They may be judging the choreography in favour of simpler stories and uncomplicated stuff.

I suspect the agenda is different. Ricky wasn't doing as well . They put Ali alongside him. They then opened up the female competition where Ali went into the lead last week by putting Leila into play and dropping Ali behind Zoe too. The effect is that it doesn't look like a two horse race any more and Ali wasn't allowed to get ahead of Ricky this early. On ability to actually do anything complicated its still atwo horse race.


Just watched Jade - vastly simpler than Ali, less acting than Nat and I didn't see much relationship between the dance and the music.

I broadly agree with most of this. I preferred Jade and Ian's salsa much more than I did Ali and Brian's, but in terms of technique, Ali's routine was more difficult and more polished. It was lacking in performance, though, I think - if she'd have performed like Jade did, I'd have liked it a lot more! I don't think Ali was overmarked - but I do think Jade was undermarked, and that Ian was quite right to bring it up!

In the foxtrot I gave Laila & Anton a 8.5 and Zoe & James an 8 so their scores were about right.
It was the Salsa that was undermarked imo. Ricky danced the best but it was the choreography and music that let him down but he deserved higher. Ali danced great I just think Brian should have 'showed' her more and it was as good as Laila's, so undermarked.
Chris & Ola were undermarked I thought he did well. Jade & Ian I marked lower as she was constantly off balance taking far to big steps for her footwork to be good.

Zoe and James overmarked yet again. She's poised but the content isn't there.

Ricky Whittle was was overscored....
I though Craig deserved a few more points, too.

Pretty much agree with all of the above - I thought Jade and Ian did the spirit of the Salsa more justice than Ali and Brian (Ali was great technically but lacked punch)... at the very least they deserved to tie for differing qualities they brought to the dance.

Ian is not a natural stropper which gives more impact to his, I believe perfectly understandable, view that the judges' marks didn't reflect their critque/comments or do Jade's performance the credit it deserved.

/Zoe was a tad overmarked.

Why do they keep over marking Zoe? I just can't understand it. Jade and Ian should have had 8s.

Chris and Jade were undermarked. I thought both of them brought a joy and energy to their performances which some of the higher scoring salsas lacked.

Zoe was overmarked. I think it's more James's choreography which is the problem though. I do think he slows the routines down far too much. He did it last year with Cherie and he's doing it again with Zoe. He just about got away with it last week with the paso but, this week he was definitely out of sync with the music.

Overated - Zoe and James (despite Zoe deserving extra points for stamping on James' foot! Oh! How I loved that!)

Undermarked - Jade and Ian (Loved the end postition.)
Ali and Brian (Loved the neck drops.)

add ricky w and natalie to the overmarked and i agree with you

Over rated - Zoe and James (Laila and Anton much better. I found their routine D-U-L-L)
Ricky and Natalie (needed more practice and routine lacked content)

Under scored - Ali and Brian (should have been above Zoe and Ricky)

Under scored - Ali and Brian derserved 4 9s. I also thought Phil & Katya should have been marked higher.

I thought Zoe did a lovely Foxtrot. Perhaps not a 9, but fully deserved the other 8s in my opinion.

Agree that Jade and Chris deserved a couple more points. The 4 for Phil was ridiculous as well. Content was lacking and he lost it a couple of times, so he didn't deserve a high score, but a 4??? He did some cracking basic at the start, he got down into the rhythm and he had great hip action.

Overscored -
Ricky W and Natalie (and I say that as a fan)

Underscored -
Jade and Ian (they were much better than that, even Ian was peeved and he never loses his cool)

jade and ian were undermarked. without doubt
imo ali has NO schutzpah - she's dull and the salsa was staged moves with no energy
ricky had to be marked down to keep the audience with him (no one likes a show off) and i reckon they knew it in advance hence lots of references to 'no time to rehearsal' ie not ricky's ability or natalie's choreography - just unpractised. even bruno mentioned it - so intentionally undermarked
anton was over marked in my view. he carried her round

but really, EVERYONE was over marked in the sense that with 9s in week 3 where is there to go? They are killing the show with the overuse of the 5=1, 6=2, 7=3 ... only CRH marks properly.

*sigh*

At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I thought that Laila & Anton were marked higher than the dance deserved, as recompense for the row. Ali gets marked high because she's this year's pretty girlie. Ricky W gets marked high because they're trying to make him this year's male totty and Jade & Ian are suffering the Zoe B/Jodie TALL stigma.

Quite why they love Ricky G so much I haven't worked out yet.

We have an American friend staying with us this weekend; she is a retired dancer and enjoyed the show but was surprised at some of the marks. She thought Ali was sloppy, Ricky W was all flash and no substance and Lynda just walked around. She liked Natalie & Vincent as although she said the technical difficulty wasn't high, Natalie caught the spirit and actually seemed to feel the music. It was interesting to hear views from an impartial observer.

I don't think Laila's marks had anything to do with the controversy. It was a classic, smooth Foxtrot that moved around the floor well. I thought she completely deserved her marks.

Not convinced there is a conspiracy with Ricky or Ali either - they're just overmarked here and there.

I'm with you on this!

Also think Ricky W and Natalie overmarked

Didn't see your comments Moo - we're on the same wavelength here