Sc-OUCH!

Pop group Scooch have laughed off the UK's Eurovision result, saying they were "happy" to be 22nd out of 24, but newspapers were not quite so forgiving.

The Sunday Mirror said the "cheesy quartet" made the UK "the laughing stock of Europe" at the song contest, won by Marija Serifovic of Serbia.

"Scouch," added The People, which described Britain as having only just "escaped a 'nul points' humiliation".

And "Scooch nosedive at Eurovision" was the headline in the Sunday Times. "It wasn't a disaster - more of a crash landing," the paper added.

"At least it wasn't nul points again," said the Mail on Sunday. "Scooch, far from Flying the Flag as their song proclaimed, were heading nowhere."

And, referring to Britain's Eurovision winners of 1981, it added: "Even a bottle of Bucks Fizz on stage during Scooch's bright performance could not add the sparkle needed to recapture Cheryl Baker's past glories."

Bookmaker Ladbrokes said the UK was twice as likely to score zero points in the 2008 contest, to be held in Belgrade, than to win it. It has offered odds of 10/1 for "nul points" next year, compared with 20/1 for a British victory.

Scooch singer Caroline Barnes described the Eurovision experience as being "one in a million". "I have to say I laughed so much [that] I cried at the voting," she added after the group received 19 points, compared with Serbia's winning total of 268. "I'm not gutted. I don't want to say it was expected, but you know what Eurovision is like."

Overnight estimates suggest that 10.8m viewers saw the result announced on BBC One.

Former BBC Radio 1 breakfast presenter Mike Read said Flying the Flag was "such a weak song" and described the choreography as "appalling". "If that is the best that this country, full of great songwriters, can come up with then heaven help us," he told BBC One's Breakfast.