Strictly Come Dancing Final Betting: clearly ahead of the rest

Strictly Come Dancing / Chicken Dinner / 17 December 2007 / 2

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Chickendinner say bet on Alesha Dixon to win...

With the exception of Darren Gough, every single dancer with a better scoring average over the course of the series has gone on to win the final week - Natasha Kaplinsky's average of 33 destroyed Christopher Parker's 20 in series one; series two saw Jill Halfpenny (33.7) triumph over Denise Lewis (32.6); and last year Mark Ramprakash (33.5) beat Matt Dawson (30.9).

This year, Alesha Dixon has a massive average of 36.3 (by far the best ever) compared to Matt Di Angelo's extremely modest 32.

On final night, again with the notable exception of Gough - who somehow managed to make the public fall in love with his 'personality' (no danger of that with Di Angelo) - the dancer who gets the big scores from the judges has always gone on to win. In a head-to-head with Di Angelo, aside from week six, Alesha Dixon [1.49] to win has outdanced him on every occasion - beating him at the weekend on aggregate.

Di Angelo [3.05] is simply this year's waltz expert - like runner-up Dawson last year. His week six win was a waltz, and at the weekend his waltz wowed the judges into giving full points. Unfortunately the waltz is a dull dance, only popular with those who remember the war, hence the least likely to win over the majority of the public. All the winners so far have excelled in the faster dances (salsa, pasa doble etc), and Alesha excels at those more than anyone on the show before.

In Di Angelo's favour, however, is the big maximum score - he is now the only contestant to get the big four tens before the final show, and it is only the third one ever (Ramprakash and Halfpenny both managed it in the final).

But now it's down to the public vote. The last time that the final featured a gender mix a woman came out on top (Kaplinsky, Parker, series one), but Alesha could also suffer from middle England's inability to vote for black contestants with the enthusiasm they deserve (Lemar, Fame Academy; Colin Jackson, SCD 3).

Still, if the smart money is going on the best dancer, it simply has to be the lady.

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B Evans | 20 December 2007

Alesha could also suffer from middle England's inability to vote for black contestants with the enthusiasm they deserve

Well they voted for Ramprakash last year so this argument is specious .
B Evans | 20 December 2007

Alesha could also suffer from middle England's inability to vote for black contestants with the enthusiasm they deserve

Well they voted for Ramprakash last year so this argument is specious .