Ali’s Argentine To Shine?
It’s the Strictly semi-final on Saturday but writing this feels like after the Lord Mayor’s Show, as the fevered betting action on what has been a rollercoaster of a series took place on Monday following news there would be no semi-final dance off.
Chris Hollins has been backed off the boards into a best priced 4-5 based on the assumption he is topping the public vote and is highly likely to continue to do so. Ricky Whittle’s price has gone in the opposite direction having dropped into the dance off in the last two weeks, and he now stands at an amazingly big 11-2.
All three couples are performing the Argentine Tango this Saturday, while Ali is doing the American Smooth, Chris the rumba, and Ricky the waltz.
If you’ve followed our advice from series outset, you’ll be sitting pretty with 12s Ali and 28s Chris, so you may want to consider a cover bet on Ricky on the outright at 11-2 though it is looking very hard for him to win the series.
In truth, none of the remaining contestants looked especially impressive during the mid-week training report, but there’s still time to perfect things and we get the feeling Ali could receive the highest scores for her Argentine tango as it is teed up to be the moment she wins the judges over by producing something smouldering. All three will have their work cut out to get anywhere near the drama and passion of Mark and Karen’s Argentine tango back in 2006, which has to go down as one of the best dances in the history of Strictly:
With Chris improving, and given the weight of his and Ola’s public support, the judges could well start to talk him up on Saturday, and back it up with higher scores. The markets are somewhat threadbare this week, but we suggest backing Ali at Evens for Highest Score, and taking the 5-6 Chris scores 85 points or more which will require a gettable-looking five 8s and five 9s over the course of his two dances.
Rob Furber