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Back battling Backley in a Dancing on Ice skate-off

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All the Dancing on Ice betting dissected by Chickendinner...

Week three of Dancing on Ice (although "Dancing" is stretching it a bit) and the big news is that you can have all the youth, talent and television profile in the world, but disrespect the ice, and that's your ankle gone, so goodbye Michael Underwood. Such a shame that he should have to go when there is so much dead wood waiting to be voted off, but the show is not called dancing on crutches, is it?

Last night saw the end of Samantha Mumba, something of a surprise as she is neither the oldest nor the most inelegant contestant, but Michael Underwood's accident may have hastened her demise. In his place, Corrie's Zaraah Abrahams joined the cast. To the judges' amazement she had some "skating ability" - useful given the name of the programme - and she may have stolen Miss Mumba's entire fanbase. Miss Mumba was also let down by her partner handling her like a removal man getting to grips with an awkward roll of carpet.

Aggie MacKenzie [150.0 to win] had the lowest vote from the judges, one of whom kindly said: "You're not very good, you're not going to last long in this competition." That may have generated enough of a sympathy vote to keep her out of the bottom two when the viewers' votes were added in. Steve Backley [42.0 to win] was the other person in the skate off. He survived because the judges liked the look of his will to win, which suggests he could beat most of the other hangers-on if he has to skate-off again.

Out on their own at the front of the pack are Chris Fountain [3.3], Suzanne Shaw and Gareth Gates [both 3.7], Fountain and Shaw because they can skate, Gates because the kids and old dears like watching him.

With the exception of Zaraah Abrahams [7.0 on Betfair for "any other" to win], the gap between them and the rest is vast. Tim Vincent [55.0 to win] ought to appeal to those people clapping along at home in time to the music but has no confidence to back up his smooth looks. Backley and Greg Rusedski [40.0 to win] have a private battle of the graceless jocks going on, so there's a good chance one will be in the bottom two next week.

The two older contestants, Linda Lusardi [16.5 to win], with her Betty Turpin hair, and Aggie MacKenzie, are being kept on life support by the elderly voters, but one of them must also surely drop into the bottom two. Barring a miraculously decent performance by one of them, or the viewers being robbed of justice by another broken ankle, if MacKenzie ends up in the skate off, she's going home.