"I'm like Mr Tickle"

....well Mr Tuffers, you can sure Mr Tickle me any time you like!

Well if I thought that the Latin dances had previously descended from car crash to full on pile-up on the M40 at rush hour, then this week we have train crashes at Clapham Junction.

Even Jade and Ricky seem to be struggling, although I am hoping that if anyone can pull it out of the bag, Jade can. As for Craig - hopeless; Jo - delusional; Laila - were you thinking of putting any samba in, Anton, or were you relying on a third rate Travolta impression to get the public vote in? Even Tuffers has confessed to not being a samba man!

I am concerned about Tuffers and the samba actually and whether his knee will hold up, especially considering the problems Austin had last year with knee injuries. But Katya has gone way up in my estimation with her brainwave of turning the ballroom into a cricket pitch to allow Phil to cope better with the directional changes. Tactics worthy of la Kopylova herself! And she came across as so much more relaxed and ready to accept Phil as the humorous charmer he is. Top marks Katya!

Stroke of genuis with the masterclass - teaching Claudia the opening to Erin and Julian's samba!

The A/S training is looking promising - all apart from Chris and Ola. Was it my imagination or were they wearing Team Cola T-shirts? NatCass looked much more elegant than usual; her training clothes really suited her and made her limbs look so much longer and fluid.

Next we had Jade and Ian - my goodness me, Jade has storylines coming out of her ears - journey storyline; brother and sister storyline; learning to let go and perform storyline! Everybody else is being short changed, because we all know there are only so many storylines to round on SCD!

Duffer who gets the anti judge vote (male or female)
Clown or retired sportsman - usually allowed to stay in long enough to improve a bit with technique. Out by the middle of the series
Sportsman on a journey - sure fire winner (unless they peak too soon: Colin and Austin)
Hunky soap star - sure fire finalist/semi finalist

Good old gal - giving it some
Pop princess/stage schooler dogged by accusations of Previous Dance Training. Popular with judges less so with public.
Judges' favourite - considered overmarked, so therefore loses public vote (Zoe is a particularly unpromising name to have in these circumstances)
Girl next door - has occasionally been known to sneak across from Pop Princess/Stage Schooler category and snatch a win (Jill/Alesha)

Sub categories
Ultra competitive sportswoman
Feisty sexpot (usually headed for disaster especially when teamed with Brendan)

But amazingly Jade is having a crossover journey - ultra competitive sportswoman to girl next door in the course of two short weeks! Way to go girl!