I do think some couples are mismatched.
Who I think should have been together:

Chris and Ola - Perfect partnership
Phil and Lillia
Laila and Brendan
Richard D and Erin
Zoe and Anton
Ali and James
Darren and Martina
Lynda and Matthew
Natalie and Vincent - good partnership
Jade and Ian - good partnership

Can't remember anymore .

They can't cater for the randomness that makes some pros popular and others not. They put the pairs together though on the basis of height and probably buggins turn so you don't get two finalists in a row. You could easily argue that some people need more versatile pros or more switched into the voters choreography or different treatment or have pros that hinder them somehow.

Thats another reason why voting because a pair works is suspect because the pairings have nothing to do with the contestants.

No idea how tall Rav is, but I think he'd have been better with any female pro other than Aliona, who gave him some truly naff choreography. He does seem to be a bit of a gurner, but nothing excuses that quickstep!

Laila and Anton.....The Latin just does`t work....and I`am not talking about ability...more a sense of chemistry....Strangely they seem more at one when doing Ballroom....I just have a feeling that another pro would have complimented her sultry looks.....The guy on ITT the other night summed it up......With some couples you always think there`s a chance that something is going on(naughty,naughty)...but with Anton and Laila...no chance.

i think Ali and Brian are perfectly put together. They have have matched together more than just a dance partnership

Brendan would've eaten Laila alive. I think she would've been an awful partner for him.

One of the reasons Brendan got along with Jo so well was that Jo was up for ANYTHING. She tried, tried, and tried. She failed, but at least she tried.

Laila comes across as someone who doesn't enjoy trying. She'd be testing Brendan's patience constantly and I think it would be a more strained partnership than Anton/Laila now.

I agree. Laila with Brendan would have been a nightmare.

I am not sure who she would have been suited to if she wasn't with Anton. She does seem a bit of a giver-upper. I think Anton and her are pretty well matched in that she is good at ballroom but rubbish at latin

For me Ricky W and Natalie are the worst pairing of the remaining couples.

For my own personal enjoyment I would have switched Anton & Laila and Vincent & Natalie around partner wise. I think Anton is completely obliterating Laila's personality, and likewise Natalie with Vincent. Switch the partners around and I think I'd find them more entertaining. Everyone else this year was fine - even the less able pairs seemed to get on well enough. Martina might have needed someone a bit more forward than Matthew, but that's about it.

Laila would be taller than Vincnet. Natalie is already too tall for him.

lol HAHAHAHAHAH

I would have loved to see Jade and Vincent dance together, just for my own amusement.

If they can partner Ola with Andrew Castle, they can do anything height-wise.

I think they've got Ali and Brian, Chris and Ola, Phil and Kat and Brendan and Jo right this year. They all seem to have the right chemistry that works for them.

Wrong: Rav and Aliona seemed to dislike each other, Natalie does seem to be overshadowing Vincent's personality and the same with Lynda and Darren. I think Rav would have been better with someone who really taylors the dance to them like Lilia or Erin. Natalie might have done well with Anton, James or Brendan (if I didn't like him so much with Jo). Same with Lynda.

Of the couples left, I think Natalie & Vincent are ill matched. They just don't look like a couple when they dance. This is not meant as a criticism of Natalie's size but of putting her with small, slight Vincent. Ricky & Natalie are not mismatched so much as being handicapped by Natalie's inexperience on SCD. She's trying too hard. Anyone dancing with Anton, is not going to get to the final because of his poor Latin so Laila pulled the short straw. Ali & Brian and Chris & Ola are perfect matches.

I hadn't thought of that ( clearly I don't spend enough time thinking about SCD ) but yes I think that Vincent would have brought out the exotic side of Laila that seems so incompatible with Anton. And Natalie and Anton would have had wonderful enterainment value

If they had paired the coupled with their best height match then Natalie Lowe would have been paired with Joe Calzaghe. Now that would have been interesting. What with her comment that she expects her partner to reach HER level. The more I see of that girl the less I like her.

I think other than that the pairing have been OK in terms of height. The producers can never stiuplate for a personality clash so given that I think they've got it more or less right.

I would have loved to see that pairing.

I think both Darren and Lilia did poorly on the partners this year.

And someone's got it in for Flavia. Jimmy Tarbuck, Phil Collins and then Craig. I feel quite sorry for her.

Vincent and Natalie although they get on really well, to me, just don't look right together. She's a bit too tall.

Although, on the height thing, Austin and Erin looked fine. And Matthew Cutler's quite tall isn't he? But Nicole's only tiny.

Think you mean Phil Daniels. Yes, Flavia deserves a decent partner next year.

Whoop, yes I did. Still she has a boyfriend out of it. Every cloud etc.

We'll never know as Laila might have been inclined to try more and spend more time with her partner if he wasn't the pratt who had insulted her and was instead someone she could get on with and enjoy working with.

Getting on and respecting your partner does help you work with them.

How do you know who will be a good partner?

Camilla got stick for her partners on here she had
David Dickinson - poor
Roger Black - expect to be good was okish
Ray - was good
James - was a poor dancer made better by Camilla
Gethin ditto James
Tom - Was good

So she only had two possible winners if you studied them on day 1

Look at Craig Kelly and Mark Foster for example - young men that could have been good who knows. JOes calzagne was favourite to win by bookies at the start.

You never know who would be good and who will be bad (bar the exception like Ricky Whittle).

All this nonsense that X deserves a good partner next year. The fact is unless you do get the old duffer you don't really know what you are getting.

Of course a lot of that is true. However, ther are celebs that are obviously not going to be rubbish. Tom, for example, had a love of dance going into the show. It was evident that he was going to be good. Most celebs under thirty are a reasonably safe bet (Gethin started badly but he obviously had bags of potential as may have been expected by his profile - Camilla didn't just wave a magic and over him). Quite a few of the females were always going to be good.

There are going to be some exceptions but if you look at Lilia's last three partners - Dom Littlewood, Don Warrington and Richard Dunwoody - did anyone expect any of those to be anything less than "poor/just about okayish"?

Of course it's a bit random but when people say that X deserves a decent partner, they're saying, give them a RickyW/Matt di A/Gethin/Colin (or a Roger Black who, I agree, promised more than he delivered).

Problem is, the BBC don't seem to be able to get too many "decent" partners on the male side. So many of them are in the 35-45 age bracket which is, truly, a lottery. However, surely clues can be picked up from background?

Lots of jump jockeys are average sized - flat jockeys tend to be built smaller...