Paso doble to send Abbey to Strictly bottom two over top spot

The paso doble has brought top Strictly scores for Ashley Taylor Dawson and Ben Cohen already this series, while for Susanna Reid, her score of 39 in Blackpool was not only her highest of the series, but also carried her to the head of the betting to win the show.

Therefore, the omens are strong that Abbey Clancy will enjoy a productive week and progress through into the final seven.

However, three of her four highest-scoring weeks so far have been when dancing ballroom routines and whether she possesses the necessary attack and aggression to truly shine in the paso double is up for debate.

One thing that is for sure is she is unlikely to profit from a second successive week of irregular marking, with three 10s received last week, alongside a seven from Craig Revel Horwood.

Given that Abbey is likely to be in the bottom half of the leaderboard and has already found herself in the bottom two this series, when performing a rumba routine, she is worth backing at 3/1 to be in the dance off.

The other dance-off spot looks about as certain as darkness at 4pm in the winter in Britain, with Mark Benton 1/8 to be in the bottom two.

This bet must be completely avoided, as if Mark is in the bottom two for the second week in succession, there is as good as no chance that he will be saved by the judges against any of the other remaining acts.

Therefore, the 1/5 that Mark is the eighth Strictly elimination is the far better of the two bets.

As for the best value in competition to Abbey for a bottom-two spot, Ashley’s scores have been fairly middle of the road for the majority of recent weeks and he could face a dance off.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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