Fair enough. It certainly didn't look like that on the first lift to me but I have only seen it the once.

But their scores did not reflect their marks! Criticisms is one thing but then giving her still 9's is another.

Ali's AT was the worst - awful music and she was so nervous again, but her A Smooth was fantastic, she looked great and danced it beautifully. Ricky's AT had help from Vincent and it showed by standing out from the other two. Chris's AT was better than his Rumba - that had no hip action as the judges said. It's obvious the judges want to see an Ali v Ricky final, and that's what it should be. Those two have stood out from the first week.

Thank goodness someone else saw it. After the judge's comments and 10s all round I though there was something wrong with my TV

She didn't get all 9's, though. She had 8's and a couple 9's. The judges marks and comments don't always match but you can't say that they aren't critical of her.

They don't. Please don't get me wrong. She is a beautiful and elegant lady and dancer. However, her AT tonight did nto deserve the marks, it looked very nervous I was soo worried for her throughout that dance. She didn't "gurn" (the popular criticism of Chris), but her face was tight and not in a good way. It did distract me from the dance. I'm a Chris and Ola supporter, but normally I'm happy to say Ali was better technically, however, tonight in the AT she wasn't. Of course that's my personal opinion.

Ali's AS was indeed much better than Chris's rhumba, but it wasn't deserving of 10s. It seemed to be riddled with slight pauses (maybe it was supposed to look like that but it looked wrong), turns that Ali finished long after Brian, and there was that bit where both her hands were stretched above her head and wobbling all over the place that looked like she'd forgotten what to do and had thrown in some ballet. I though perhaps a couple of 8s and three 9s would have been fairer.

On the other hand Chris's AT was far better than Ali's AT, and Ali's AT was worse than Chris's rhumba. Ali's had little content, no feeling, and was poorly executed except for the lift at the end which I felt was more than matched by the one Chris did. Ali's AT was 7s at most for me.

So for me there is no way Ali was twelve points better than Chris over the two dances (was it twelve? it was of that order). Maybe four points at most would have been ok.

However in SCD you often see the judges being generous with the lesser dancers who are at the top of their game, and more severe with the better dancers who have an off day. So you often see what seems to be a much better dance get the same score. I don't think its 'right' but it happens all the time. Had that applied today it could have been even closer.
Last edited by grunson : 12-12-2009 at 20:51

I didn't enjoy her AT that much because she looked so nervous, it made me nervous watching her. I think that's a shame that they seem to hold her back so much. I thought she was on a level with Chris, tbh. I just disagreed with you when you said that they wear rose tinted glasses, i don't think they do.

Len made a right fool of himself tonight with his comments. The silly fool doesn't realise his comments would only have the opposite effect on the voting public.

And Chris's rhumba had no content. Looked like he was just watching Ola dance to me, while he walked about a bit. Still, we all see things differently I suppose...

Judges working on the public!

Do you know, I sort of think this is OK. It redresses the balance a little bit given the amount of manipulation there has been in Chris and Ola's favour.

yup! and he just walked about in th AT aswell. (in my opinion, of course)

thought this was a dancing competition not a walking competition

Ola has been getting away with this for weeks now i.e she doing all the work while Chris just walks around her. Delighted that Darcey reminded her about it and Darcey told her the same last week.

I thought the content of the AT was ok (although the steps were fairly basic), but, as someone who likes Chris and Ola, I have to agree that the rumba was disappointingly content free. I think Ola could have at least followed the example of James there, who tends to put in some very recognisable basic steps for his partners when dancing the rumba.

Not really, I'd pretty much go along with that description, though for me the male is often a bit of a spare part in the rhumba anyway (so it was probably a clever choice by Ola!). However I think Chris's selling of his doing nothing in the rhumba was better than Ali's nervous and weak performance of very little in her AT which had nothing going for it at all.

Looks like the judges never got their wish.