1. My points about Tony's latin are true though his latin is non existent and frankly as a pro dancer he was a disgrace

2. Nope never danced against him but my brother has and to my knowledge Tony has never beaten him. Though my brother has been on the receiving end of Tony's mouth after beating him.

3. I rarely comment on Tony to be frank if you look over seven series I might have posted 20 times ??? But Saturday he was really bad a terrible routine danced out of time I posted my views

4. The professional dancer on Strictly should be competent in both styles IMO he is NOT and because he isn't he then takes the piss out of latin something I hate

That would be true if Anton was fabulous at Latin and I was venting but he WAS awful on Saturday I did not voice anything that was untrue - yes I find him loathsome from past experience but my comments especially in recent series have been about his dancing and my comments and views are on that I really can't find anything good to say about that dancing on saturday whatsoever

exactly true Bendy

Who is Tony?

Thank you, do you know I thought I was imagining things were bad between them. So glad others feel the same way about Bendy and her bro. BTW who is her bro as I must have missed his posts if he has posted. Mind you for ages I thought she was a he!!!!!! oops sorry

You may not like him, your brother may not like him, but you do seem to pop up every so often to vent your spleen over him. But he must have something otherwise why is he on tele. BTW are you or your brother on TV????? or have you ever been??? Just thought I would ask.

me no, brother yes and parents who are also dance teachers and judges. I suppose the BBC liked his 'cheeky chappie' personna he has portrayed for a few years it certainly wasn't on his overall ability (ballroom AND latin)

I don't pop up as you say to just post on Tony if you look I have over 10,000 posts on here I DON'T post in his appreciation threads and frankly don't appreciate being pulled up on here to be honest - I have NOT questioned your opinion

Are you having a laugh or just pretending.

Anton Du Beke alias Tony Beke as he was originally.

His Jive was the worst latin he has ever done over all the series, he is getting worse rather than better.
Heaven help his Saaamba this week, he thinks it is a silly dance so dont think he will take it seriously.

That would be very unfair to Laila, who must be quite worried after this week's dreadful jive. Everyone else seems to be putting in a great effort, whatever their capability.

He gave the Samba a good go this time, he certainly gave it a good effort during the pro dance, even though he hates the dance. So I am hopeful for this week, common Laila!!

I don't understand why Anton and Erin are still on SCD when they're ballroom specialists and neither of them is good at Latin - although Erin does try to do her best for her celebs and makes an effort with the Latin. Surely the SCD pro dancers should all be all-rounders, given that the competition involves both ballroom and Latin? There are other pro dancers who are specialists in one discipline but are at least competent in the other (like Natalie) but Anton isn't even competent in Latin. He's a liability to his celebs.

Why would I be having a laugh or pretending? How should I know what his real name is?

That of course is perfectly true. I was thinking more in terms of him specialising in Latin as a competitor, and as far as I was aware, his ballroom teaching tends to be limited mostly to medallist level within the school, whereas, he can teach latin to "sky's-the-limit" standard of top amateurs etc.

(His step-Mum runs excellent competitions in Reading!)

Yes you are right, he did offer Latin lessons alongside ballroom. I have friends who started going to him for ballroom lessons; they were also going to a comp where they needed a good basic rumba (as opposed to their usual competition routine) and asked Anton if he'd help them put a decent routine together. Apparently he didn't have a clue - had no idea what steps they were allowed to use as "basic", and even struggled with timing. They didn't stay with him long for ballroom either.

Matt is also a qualified judge and judged at Blackpool this year apparently.

There is not a separate qualification for judging any Qualified Teacher (to members level in both styles) can apply for judging licence the competitions you are asked to adjudicate depends on the status you have reached in the dance world

For Blackpool only past champions are asked to judge - so no surprise if Matt has been asked to judge

I asked simply because you have quite a strong Anti Anton opinion when you are on here and don't have very many nice things to say about him. Also as you feel you can voice your opinion I too feel that I can voice mine. If you feel that I have 'pulled' you up I am sorry that you have taken offence. We will have to agree to disagree on our feelings towards Anton.

Oooh goody another Anton bashing thread I see, I'm sure he was too blame for the credit crunch as well

I would never bash Anton. I would think of other things to do with him

I always used to have a soft spot for Anton but I'm really going off him, which makes me sad - I thought his and Laila's jive was appalling and I'm not sure if all of it was down to her. However, I will say about Anton that when his partner goes wrong he makes a massive effort to try and pull them back into place, often to the detriment of his own performance. And we have seen Laila just freeze up before (e.g. tango when he had to push her back the right way) - she isn't as strong a dancer as some make out. I think a lot of it is down to her attitude; even though I like her quite a lot more now, I think she needs to relax and try to not take herself so seriously.

Anton's latin...eeesh. I don't want to join in with the 'He's sooooooooooo rubbish!!!!' comments but it is getting a little hard to ignore! It wouldn't take much, surely for a world-class ballroom dancer to refine his latin just a little. He just needs to get off his high horse and have the humility to admit he's not as good at it as he should be, and get better rather than treat the whole Latin side as a big joke. It's not a fair attitude on his partners. Erin hasn't danced Latin since she was very young but she puts in a perfectly credible effort to her dancing and pulls out some brilliant routines. As much as I've been a fan, I think Anton just needs to grow up.

Anton really annoyed me on ITT last night. He put the blame for the jive all on Laila. Now most of the professionals support their celeb and say things to them like "it wasn't your fault, you did great" etc etc. Some even take the balme for mistakes. Not Anton he never praised Lalia at all, and when Claudia said who went wrong he looked at her with such horror as if to say how can you ask such a thing it couldn't possibly have been me.

I thought Karen was very diplomatic when taking about Anton's jive. To change the subject, wasn't she informative last night, brilliant.

Then again, if Laila can't be bothered to turn up for a session on the samba specially organised with Chris Marques! I think we can tell that her priorities for doing SCD lie somewhere other than the dancing.

Yes, I think Anton's 'blaming' (if that's what you heard) of Laila for the poor quality of her dancing is much worse than Laila blaming Anton for the 'racist' comment when there are plenty of people - Brendan and Erin have signed statements to the BBC - who know that she used the word first then backtracked when a joint statement was agreed.

Why does some people find it necessary to refer to Anton as Tony?

I'll happily accept that Tony is his real name and the "Anton Du" bit is a stage name added for artistic effect, but in a discussion about the quality of his dancing, the name is irrelevant.

The use of Tony can only really be motivated by some personal dislike of Anton which renders the opinions of those who refer to him as "Tony" as questionable / biased.

For the record, I think Anton is a pillock and even to my untutored eye his Latin dancing looks suspect (and his continued refusal to do anything about it is unprofessional), but referring to him as "Tony" is an obvious sign of much deeper issues at a personal level.

Quite. It says a great deal about the people who insist on using it after all these years. It appears that some cannot accept that, whatever they think about his dancing skills and personality, he has made a career for himself they have not achieved.