Jason & Kristina To Rock Wembley
Now the competition really starts on Strictly with the remaining 8 contestants heading to Wembley Arena tomorrow night.
Robbie will be doing a crowd-pleasing salsa to ‘Let Me Entertain You’ while Russell also has an (in theory) viewer-friendly jive set to ‘Reach For The Stars’. So pre-show they look pretty safe to us, despite Russell likely to be bottom on the leaderboard, and Robbie lurking somewhere among the vulnerable bottom 4.
Among the top 4, Harry has salsa – and training clips suggest he has improved his fast Latin technique with better hip action – Jason has a jive – which could just steal the whole show, being talked up by Ian Waite as having Jill Halfpenny potential, and who can forget that gem…
… while Chelsee has the samba, and Holly – likely to be reunited with Artem – will dance the quickstep.
Of these 4, you would have to assume Holly and Chelsee are potentially more vulnerable on the public vote, but this is often that time in the series when some fairly unsubtle ordering with the judges’ scores takes place. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise us if we see at least one dead-heat among the top 4, thus ensuring none of them grabs less than 8 points, making them safer.
This leaves us with Anita – in the bottom 2 last week and dancing the samba – and Alex who is doing the tango. We expect Anita to get a strong edit, and a push to try and help her avoid the bottom 2, as is often the way with a perceived shock bottom 2 appearance from the previous week, so 5-4 for her to be the next contestant eliminated makes limited appeal.
Which leaves the conundrum that is Alex. The One Show is a fabulous platform for her to gain a solid Beeb vote base, and we wonder if she has topped the vote among the women in previous weeks. But for us, her dancing is very wooden and a tango is a rather forgettable dance, so a best-priced 100-30 Alex to be eliminated looks too tempting to miss out on. That said, if Alex ends up 5th on the leaderboard, and above Anita, we would fear for Anita, as it may prove extremely tough for Anita, even with a ramp, to overtake Alex on the public vote.
This scenario might even see Holly or Chelsee fall into the bottom two – especially if either of them ends up scoring a 7 on the judges’ leaderboard – or maybe Russell if Robbie steals a bit of his limelight, but we keep coming back to Alex and Anita.
Of course, you can take the safer option and back Anita at 5-4 and Alex at 100-30, and turn a profit if either is eliminated.
In Highest Scorer betting, we have to recommend the 13-8 Jason with Ladbrokes. The big arena will be conducive to showcasing a great jive in front of 6,000 fans. We think Kristina is bound to have come up with some great elements and the synchronicity of the flicks and kicks could be a real treat. The only worry is, Jason has already been favoured with late slots in the running order, and the bet could be scuppered if he is up early.
We sense it will be a night of high scoring to keep the feel-good spirit of such a big occasion at Wembley. With this in mind, and the possibility of a tie at the top of the leaderboard, Holly has to be worth backing also for highest score at 8-1 with William Hill.
A quality Quickstep is historically a high scoring dance, Holly has not topped the leaderboard yet and they might like the show angle of a triumphant return for Artem. Also, looking at training clips, there appeared to be some very clever choreo incorporated in their routine.
Also with William Hill we think over 28.5pts for Robbie is a good bet at 5-6. Correction, now cut to 4-6, but that still looks reasonable. A crowd-pleasing salsa to ‘Let Me Entertain You’ Robbie is going to throw himself into… at this stage of the series, surely that spells 8s from the likes of Len, Alesha and Bruno (possibly even a 9 from Alesha) so even if Craig wants to play Mr Grumpy with Robbie again and get his 6 paddle out, 29pts looks well within Robbie’s range.
Rob Furber