I have always felt that the headbanger is not that visually appealing so it is rather refreshing to see Chico top this week after a brilliant performance despite Jorgie and Matt both doing the headbanger.

To be fair, if Matthew hadn't made the mistake he would have been top of the leaderboard.

And the same probably applies to Jorgie, i.e. if she had landed it cleanly she would have been top of the leaderboard.

Did Matt actually 'grab' her when she 'landed'? I only ask as I thought they said she would land on one foot! I didn't see that. All I saw was Matt 'grabbing' her by the waist before she was even upright

She did land it on one foot but was a bit off balance. Matt grabbing her counterbalanced her so she didn't topple over but it, therefore, wasn't a clean landing.

Agree - Chico did the hardest lifts also so its not all about the head banger. At the end of the day he did everything perfectly and the others did not.

Thats because Chico can't do one. They ended up giving more marks for the simper , less risky routine, and didn't note that the other two had more content before the headbanger than Chico. .........

Strange, not one of the 3 judges mentioned this!
I thought it was so obvious that it would at least be in their 'summing up'. Matthew's was!

You watched a different skate. Chico was by far the best skater and his lifts were perfect. He was robbed tonight,

but he got the highest scores in the skating

I was replying to someone that said he did not deserve to have the highest marks because he did not do the head banger.

Neither can Jorgie or Matt judging from tonight - not properly, anyway.

I'd rather see an error-free performance with plenty of content, than a routine that is all about one particularly risky move.

I'd rather have a banana than a broken banger.

The banana was delightful I think it helped that we hadn't seen it before (or not often anyway, like the head banger).

At least they had the guts to attempt it.

Chico wasn't given the chance.

I'm not knocking Jorgie or Matt. They did the best they could and I enjoyed the rest of their performances. But I dislike the headbanger - it's dangerous and doesn't enhance a routine in my opinion. It just detracts from everything else.

How do you know he wasn't given the chance. They can ask to do it and have done in the past.

I agree with you Sid, I thought the Banana lift was lovely and prefer to the headbanger that has been done several times, I know its dangerous but I prefer the Banana.

The way I see it neither Matt nor Jorgie (I like them both) completed a headbanger and as there was a build up to it it did rather spoil their performances so Chico deserved his place on the leader board doing some excellent tricks and lifts which are possible just as dangerous and skilful than the rather ugly over used head banger.

I think Matt could definitely have got a 10 without the headbanger. He still did some other good lifts. Would have preferred the routine without the headbanger & then maybe he would have done his back crossovers correctly too.

If Matthew had seen how the professional Matt did the headbanger, his partner would have landed perfectly. If any of you still have it recorded just watch Matt and Jorgie, Jorgie's head is nowhere near the floor, it is not much lower than waist height, and as others have said, Matt grabbed her to stand her upright.

If Matthew had spun his partner round so that her head was only just lower than waist height, he would have had the strength to hold her when she put her feet back on the ice. At least he attempted the real headbanger, with his partner's head just above the ice.

If he'd have done that he would have basicallyy done a float spin & not a heabanger - he already did one of those with Nina earlier in the series.

Matthew did dump her on the ice like a sack of potatoes though, his mistake was much worse than Jorgie's and should have been penalised more heavily by the judges.

Yes but for me neither Matt nor Jorgie completed there's successfully hence Chico beat them.

Without the headanger, replacing it with something else, Matthew's routine otherwise was so good, he might have got a 10.0 or two or three.