The Wedding Present Cup

                              And so we finally reach the final post... Scores after the second round of the final: At this stage, it's looking like there are two races: Dalliance and WHISN? battling for the title; MFD and Dare vying for the bronze medal... 84 Dalliance 78 What Have I Said Now? 56 My Favourite Dress 54 Dare Before we get to the final results, here are some stats re the judges' final votes: Votes per song : Scoring pattern : Round 3 My Favourite Dress v Dare In the battle for third place, Dare needed to overcome a two-point deficit to overtake MFD. It fell just short, however, with this tie ending in stalemate. For the third time, Johnny gave MFD maximum points, but this time he was joined by Joanna and Mike. 34 My Favourite Dress 34 Dare What Have I Said Now? v Dalliance Mandy's comment was, 'I make no bones about Seamonsters containing all the best tunes, and Dalliance is right up there in the best of the best.' Ian's summary: 'A brave show

                             Scores after the first round of the final: 41 Dalliance 37 What Have I Said Now? 31 My Favourite Dress 27 Dare Round 2 My Favourite Dress v Dalliance This tie  saw the most entrenched views: only one judge (John) made it a draw. 11/17  judges called this in Dalliance's favour, and once again only Johnny gave MFD a 4-0 victory.  Keg was also rooting for MFD (along with WHISN?): 'I've always rolled my eyes when "Dalliance" keeps topping fans' polls. I mean, it's no "Le Bikini" is it?' Gav M took a very different view:  'I could score this 0-8 for Dalliance – absolutely no competition here. The Peel session version is actually even better than that on Seamonsters. I remember hearing it on that Peel session – it really blew me away. I seem to recall it had a similar effect on Peel too.' 25 My Favourite Dress 43 Dalliance What Have I Said Now? v Dare This tie saw the greatest number of 4-0 scorelines (eight),

                            Our final four tracks are: My Favourite Dress What Have I Said Now? Dalliance Dare We are not going to have a traditional knock-out semi-final and final; instead, the panel are going to vote in a 'round robin' format. It will work like the group stage of the World Cup: each track will 'play' each of the other in three sets of matches. For each tie, the judges have three scoring options: 4-0 (Clear-cut, no-brainer decision) 3-1 (Some pause for thought before deciding the winner) 2-2 (Unable to separate them) N.B. I will post the results in three stages, but I won't begin until all of the panel have cast all of their votes, so as to avoid any temptation to vote 'tactically'. (I entered my own scores before any of the rest of the panel voted.) Round 1 My Favourite Dress v What Have I Said Now? A fairly close one. Gricey described MFD as 'a perennial favourite' but conceded that he'd 'found it a tiny bit dated as the r