The Wedding Present Cup

                        What Have I Said Now? v It's For You I have my reservations about WHISN? (although I agree that the ending is magnificent), but I always knew my vote for 'It's For You' would be in vain. 13 What Have I Said Now?  4  It's For You Perfect Blue v Kennedy I don't suppose this result will surprise anyone on the panel (even the handful who voted for 'Kennedy'), although it might be a bit of a shock to the more casual TWP listener. A last 32 finish feels about right for TWP's most famous song, I think. 12 Perfect Blue  5  Kennedy Heather v Take Me! A tough choice for me, and, I imagine, for many of the judges. It was neck-and-neck throughout, and with only Gav M's vote to come in, the score was 8-8. However, given that, in the previous stage, he gave Heather 25 and Take Me! zero, there was only one way the final result was going to go... 9 Heather 8 Take Me! Don't Talk, Just Kiss v Flying Saucer DTJK has done extremely we

                       The panel can now, with some relief, put away their calculators, spreadsheets and abacuses and just make yes/no decisions. The table showing individual votes is below the list of results. My Favourite Dress v Anyone Can Make A Mistake Three of these four ties were easy decisions for me, even without consulting my blog ranking. ACMAM was my number four ranking, and I voted for it without hesitation. I knew though, that it was probably destined for defeat, as did Johnny:  'I've settled on ACMAM (even though I know it won't go through) as... NOTHING will ever make me thrash around the living room in giddy gay abandon like Anyone Can Make a Mistake.' Sadly, we were both proved right, with only Gav M joining us in the lost cause. 14 My Favourite Dress  3  Anyone Can Make A Mistake No v Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft I was a little bemused that forgettable jangly plodder 'No' even made it into the second stage, and so I was gobsmacked when it

               Statistics from the second stage I know you'll all have been on the edge of your seats waiting for this, so here we go... Highest scores Nine songs achieved a score of 300+ (average mark per judge shown in brackets.) 359 Dalliance (21.1) 334 You Should Always Keep In Touch... (19.6) 321 My Favourite Dress (18.9) 317 What Have I Said Now? / Interstate 5 (18.6) 311 Heather (18.3) 308 Dare (18.1) [2nd place] 307 Come Play With Me (18.1) 305 Flying Saucer (17.9)  [3rd place] Biggest winning margin 111 You Should Always Keep In Touch... 103 Dalliance 72 My Favourite Dress 52 Heather 44 What Have I Said Now? Lowest Scores 31 Him Or Me (What's It Gonna Be?) 32 Pinch, Twist, Pull, Release 34 Hula Doll / Rekindling 40 Felicity 42 The Girl From the DDR / Model, Actress, Whatever... 'Unlucky' Songs that missed out by the narrowest margins: Sports Car (4 points) Convertible (13) Crawl (22) 'Disappointing second stage' All of the songs that topped th

                      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 H is made up of the qualifiers from groups  15  and  16  in the first stage. Group H Interstate 5 Crawl Never Said The Thing I Like Best About Him Is His Girlfriend  Up Rekindling Scotland Him Or Me (What's It Gonna Be?) Dare Flying Saucer Take Me! Niagara Not From Where I'm Standing  Getting Nowhere Fast Model, Actress, Whatever... Pleasant Valley Sunday The Results Described as 'a bitch' by one forum member, this final group certainly had its share of big-hitters: five of the tracks were in the top 15 on my blog, and half of them were in the top 50. From early on in the voting process, it was clear that there was to be no middle ground - a large gap soon developed between the top seven and the rest, and this remained the case until the

                     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 G is made up of the qualifiers from groups  13  and  14  in the first stage. Group G You Should Always Keep In Touch... Sticky Drive Venus Three Dan Dare California Mothers Kennedy Silver Shorts It's For You No Christmas Be Honest Rachel Fifty-Six Santa Ana Winds The Results With both group 13 and 14, there was some disagreement between the judges about the relative merits of each set of songs, so it was hard to predict how this one would pan out. In the end, the top half of this table was dominated by tracks from group 14.  From early on, it became apparent that 'You Should Always Keep In Touch...' was going to dominate, and it finished top by 111 points, the greatest margin so far. ('Dalliance' previously held the record with 103 -