The Wedding Present Cup: Stage 2, Group D

                 



The panel must award a total of 136 points to the songs in these groups; no song may receive more than 25 points, and they must give points to at least 10 of the 16 songs. The top 4 go through to the last 32.

Group D is made up of the qualifiers from groups 7 and 8 in the first stage.

Group D

  • Don't Talk, Just Kiss
  • What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?
  • Fleshworld
  • Don't Laugh 
  • Gazebo
  • Shatner
  • Unfaithful
  • Sucker
  • Heather
  • Give My Love To Kevin
  • Convertible
  • Larry's
  • Palisades
  • Dreamworld
  • Back a Bit...Stop
  • Snake Eyes

The Results

Like goup C, the panel awarded far more 25s and zeros than they did in the first two rounds, suggesting that they are now targeting their marks at their favourites in a more focused way. Only three used their full quota of six zeros this time though (twice as many did so in group C), as there was less of a weak 'tail' - bottom of the table 'Back a Bit...Stop' outscored all of the bottom three of the last group by at least 20 points.

By the time around half of the panel had voted, 'Heather' and 'Don't Talk Just Kiss' had already established a clear lead over the rest, and they maintained it to the end. That's not to say that their suport was universal: Kirk, Keg and Harry found only a few points for the Seamonsters track; Steve M showed similar disregard for 'Don't Talk...', Gav M giving it a zero.

The competition for the other two places was much fiercer: with only the last few scores to come in, 'Give My Love To Kevin', 'Convertible', 'What Did Your Last Servant Die Of?' and 'Gazebo' were all in with a fighting chance. In the end, it was 'Convertible' and 'Gazebo' that missed out. In fact, a late surge of points for 'Don't Laugh' (including a maximum 25 from Gav M) saw it climb into sixth place, while a couple of late zeros from the two Gavs scuppered 'Gazebo's chances.

There were quite a few divisive tracks in this round. 'Fleshworld' got 20+ from Keg, Harry and Gricey, but zeros from four others (watch out for the public enquiry that Keg threatened to demand if it didn't qualify). 'Larry's' received a maximum 25 from Johnny and high marks from Keg and Mandy, but Ian's 10 was its only other notable mark; 'Sucker', 'Unfaithful' and 'Palisades' all attracted a mixed bag of decent scores, low marks and zeros.

The panel had regarded Group 7 as one of the strongest ones in the first stage, and that was reflected here, with the bottom third of the table being dominated by tracks from group 8. 'Sucker' only just scraped into the last qualifying place in group 7, but managed a respectable mid-table position here.

Perhaps the most surprising outcome was 'Snake Eyes': it filled the last qualifying spot in group 8, only beating off 'Flame On' by five points; here it outscored two of the songs that finished above it in the first stage and was only six points behind the track that was fifth. This may partly be as a result of the different scoring approaches being taken in this second stage, but the fact that perennial outlier Kirk gave it a whopping 22 points (more than a quarter of its total score) is probably the main factor.





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