Strictly week 9: Watch out for Anita in the home straight

And then there were seven! Brave Jamelia has finally been given her marching orders and a certain someone mentioned in the headline of this article has emerged as a very real contender to land the Strictly Come Dancing Glitterball trophy.

The annual trip to Blackpool always seems to bring out the best in the contestants and BBC presenter Anita Rani didn’t disappoint.

Here’s your Monday morning fix of the latest SCD talking points…

Anita warms the cockles

One word best describes Anita and Gleb Savchenko’s Paso – fierce! Their tremendous effort drew high praise from the judges with Craig Revel-Horwood calling it ‘magnificent’ and awarding the pair nine points.

Their overall score of 37 was just reward for a powerful display.

Anita is now the 12/1 third favourite to win the competition and that might not be bad each-way shout if she can continue to maintain the same level of performance.

Are the bookies underestimating Kellie and Georgia?

Eastenders actress Kellie Bright is the rank outsider of the remaining magnificent seven at odds of 33/1. But is she being underestimated?

While the likes of Peter Andre and Helen George have gone off the boil, Kellie has stuck to her task and scored a more than commendable 37 points for her terrific Quickstep.

As for Georgia May Foote, while it’s still difficult to look past 8/13 favourite Jay McGuiness the value lies in the 5/2 about the Coronation Street star’s chances.

Georgia and Giovanni Pernice topped the leaderboard for the second week in a row after producing a stunning American Smooth and their odds are only going to tumble as we approach the conclusion of series 13.

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

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