Another year on the Anagrammy calender ends with fourth Grand Aanagrammy Awards where the best of the best compete for the most prestigious awards in the world of anagrams. After two months of record number of voters (40 in November and 45 in December), the numbers for the Grand Aanagrammy was down to 37, with several regulars not voting. Fortunately, the majority of members still enjoy and support the Awards. It is also good to see many past members come back to vote and the number of newbies and lurkers who enjoy the experience and marvel at the skill of this group. As usual the Grand Anagrammy showcased the many great discoveries of the past twelve months. You will agree that it was very difficult to select the best three in many of the categories. To make voting less onerous this year, we asked members with more than one entry in a category to consider voluntarily reduced the number. This helped in the long categories particularly. ---------------- GENERAL CATEGORY Three awards are made here in line with the now established method in the monthly Anagrammies. Earle Jones moved into the lead half way through Day One and was never challenged. The minor placings were tightly contested. Richard Grantham finished strongly for second place scoring 10 points on the last day, just pushing David Green into third. This was Earle's win was his second this year and his fifth overall. David's was his fourth ever. 1st. Earle Jones with: 48 Russian roulette = Retries not usual. 2nd. Richard Grantham with: 35 A love-hate relationship = The volatile pair has one. 3rd. David A. Green with: 32 An hermaphrodite = O, I'm part he and her! 4th. Wayne Baisley with 30 I am mentally disturbed = Tell my Martian buddies! 5th. Meyran Kraus with: 29 Antidemocratic = Dictator came in. ---------------- ENTERTAINMENT CATEGORY This was one of the closer categories. Mey ran two excellent anagrams here, but at times it looked like he have lost because of this with David Green's clever von Daniken often leading. A final day influx of 13 points secured Mey a narrow win. 1st. Meyran Kraus with: 41 The Royal Shakespeare Company = One may appear there as Shylock. 2nd. David A. Green with: 35 Erich von Daniken's "Chariots of the Gods?" = Crank has no good evidence for this shit. 3rd. Meyran Kraus with: 32 Charles Dickens's 'Oliver Twist' = The classic writer's kids' novel! ---------------- TOPICAL CATEGORY With six of the ten finalists, events in the Middle East were the subject of their topical anagrams and , not surprisingly, the first three places. David Bourke and Zoran wewre the two early leaders with David keeping the lead till the end with late challenges from Zoran and Janet. 1st. David Bourke with: 46 The USA and Britain ~ unite and hit Arabs. 2nd. Zoran Radislavlevic with: 42 Usama bin Laden = Damnable in U.S.A.!! 3rd. Jaybur with: 40 Mid East violence = Malice so evident. ---------------- RUDE CATEGORY Again, Mey ran two really good anagrams here, but probably disadvantaged himself. Lardy Girl's anagram was always a strong chance here and was well placed after Day One. She maintained a small lead till the end of voting. She has now won a solid five awards in her first year with the group. 1st. Lardy Girl with: 36 Erotic massage = Orgasmic tease. 2nd. Meyran Kraus with: 33 'Snow White's Nasty Adventures', The X-Rated Video = Sexy tart does in-and-out with the seven dwarves! 3rd. SpursKevin with: 30 Crotchless undies = Discloses her cunt. ---------------- PEOPLE'S NAMES CATEGORY This has been a categories with some classic anagrams over the years, but the standard was not quite as strong this year. Richard G and I led off, but he opened a steady lead. He withstood a late rally from me to win by just four points. 1st. Richard Grantham with: 37 Noel Coward is ~ no Oscar Wilde. 2nd. Larry Brash with: 33 The late George Harrison = Singer: Altogether a hero. 3rd. Meyran Kraus with: 29 Giovanni Pergolesi = I love opera singing! ---------------- OTHER NAMES CATEGORY This last year has seen a big improvement in this category in terms of both number and standard. James Yound took an immediate lead with seven of the first ten primary votes and just kept going. Mey did well to get to within 25 points of him.. 1st. James Young with: 63 A Nintendo Gameboy = Made to be annoying. 2nd. Meyran Kraus with: 40 Seven Eleven Incorporated = Open it and never ever close! 3rd. Richard Grantham with: 32 The Gregorian calendar = Change error, align date. ---------------- SPAM CATEGORY As I prepared the voting page, I reread Mey's long spamagram and really enjoyed it. I could see that it had no real competition. I was right! (Oh, yeah. He got third, too) 1st. Meyran Kraus with: 45 T E S T I M O N I A L S ******* [snip] 2nd. Larry Brash with: 27 ARE YOU READY TO GET $40,000 IN 6 WEEKS WITH ONLY 6 BUCKS!!?? [snip] 3rd. Meyran Kraus with: 20 The Mother of a 15 year old boy was cleaning and putting laundry away when she came across a large brown paper bag [snip] ---------------- LONG CATEGORY This was another category where the ultimate winner was easily visible during the page setup. Another hilarious long one from Richard G. 1st. Richard Grantham with: 56 WOMEN- Women are honest, loyal, and forgiving. [snip] 2nd. James H. Young with: 26 A Plain and Easy Introduction to Practical Music (1597) [snip] 3rd. Larry Brash with: 22 Angram research [snip] ---------------- SPECIAL CATEGORY We trimmed this one down to seven, as running twleve here would have been very hard on the voters. As usual three awards here, but this turned out to be four because of a tie on the last day. James Young was the leader from the beginning easily holding off a late challenge from David B. The battle for third was a cliff hanger with the last vote equaling our points' scores. A very strong Grand Anagrammy for James with 2 wins, added to the 5 already won, gives him 7 on the All-time Table. Two wins, too for David. 21 for the year and 41 all up, to move into the Top 5 on the All Time Table. 1st. James H. Young with: 43 WHAT ARE THE HALLMARKS OF A GOOD ANAGRAM? [snip] 2nd. David Bourke with: 35 Decomposing Composers [snip] Eq 3rd. Larry Brash with: 27 Accident-proneness - Psychopathological Theory. Mythology or reality? [snip] Eq 3rd. Richard Grantham with: 27 [A simultaneous anagram and approximate translation of a poem by Paul Verlaine, the first in the cycle "La Bonne Chanson" (1870). [snip] 5th. Meyran Kraus with: 17 (Virginia Woolf's suicide note to her husband Leonard) [snip] ---------------- THE BEST ANAGRAM SOFTWARE Traditionally William Tunstall-Pedoe's Anagram Genius has held a monopoly here. However, I expected a challenge from the new kid on the block, Anagram Artist by Mike Keith, which has revolutionised long anagramming. Genius led all the way, but Artist was always within a few points of the lead. The last vote tied the competition. A fair result for two excellent, but very different anagramming tools. Mike has 26 awards and William now has 10. Eq 1st. Anagram Artist 25 by Mike Keith Eq 1st. Anagram Genius 25 by William Tunstall-Pedoe Eq 3rd. Wordplay 9 by Evans A. Criswell Eq 3rd. Anagrams 2.0 9 by Andrew Trevorrow ---------------- THE BEST ANAGRAM WEBSITE Last year this was a close contest, but this year the host website, Anagrammy Awards, was an easy winner. While I have been responsible for many of the technical and design improvements on the website, Richard Grantham has done a huge amount of work. This has included a total overhaul of the Archives, maintenance of the extensive Literary Archives, updating all the Winners' pages, Record Page and Contributors Page each month, and many other enhancements. As a result (in true Aussie fashion) we have decided to award ourselves one award each rather than sharing one. This makes the Winners Pages easier not having to deal with the half awards. Any objections to this can be emailed to me and I will ignore them. This gives me 17 wins this year and 65 altogether. 1st. Anagrammy Awards 64 by Larry Brash & Richard Grantham 2nd. Anagram Genius Archive 38 by William Tunstall-Pedoe 3rd. Janet's Word Play . 23 by Janet Muggeridge ---------------- THE BEST OVERALL ANAGRAM This was run a little differently this year. The 3-2-1 points sytem was used and I asked people select their three favourite first place category choices (in retrospect, any three favourite anagrams may have been better). As expected it was close and came down to the top two, but any of the top six could have won. 1st. Mey Kraus 14 The Royal Shakespeare Company = One may appear there as Shylock. 2nd. James Young 13 A Nintendo Gameboy = Made to be annoying. Eq 3rd. Richard Grantham 11 A love-hate relationship = The volatile pair has one. Eq 3rd. David Bourke 11 The USA and Britain ~ unite and hit Arabs. Eq 5th Earle Jones 10 Russian roulette = Retries not usual. Eq 5th SpursKevin 10 Dolly Parton's Greatest Hits = Hot legs, portly arse, and tits. --------------------- THE AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE FOR ROOKY OF THE YEAR This is a new award. It aims to encourage new members who have joined in the last 12 months (or so) and who have demonstrated great anagramming skills. There were many strong contenders here, including James Young, David Green, Allan Morley, Lardy Girl, SpursKevin and Zoran R, just to mention a few. However, one stood out with 10 wins in his first year and who always posted great anagrams. While not among the Grand Anagrammy winners this year, he has had a great first year with us. He is:- Adrian Hickford. Adrian now has won 11 Anagrammies. ---------------------- THE AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE FOR THE MOST IMPROVED ANAGRAMMATIST OF THE YEAR This award to a member of more than twelve months who has shown an improvement in this year. Again, several contenders , including David Bourke and Mey Kraus. The winner here almost doubled her haul of awards this year and moved into the top 10 on the All Time Table (into 7th place to be exact). She is:- Jaybur ---------------------- THE AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE FOR THE MOST CONSISTENT ANAGRAMMATIST OF THE YEAR There is a core of excellent anagrammers who have consistently been nominated and who have won awards during the year. All of the names mentioned in the last two categories, as well as many others were considered. My choice here is a member who has been with us since the early Anagrammy days, never misses a month without a nomination and rarely has a month without an award. He fits this into a busy life with full-time studies and is one of the best around. No guesses, it is:- Mey Kraus 4 wins in the Grands this year, 30 this year and 80 since the start. ---------------------- THE DANIEL F. ETTER MEMORIAL AWARD FOR THE ANAGRAMMATIST OF THE YEAR And to the final award. The Big One. This year the Daniel Etter Memorial Award goes to the member who has collected the mostcorrected points through the year, thus demonstrating great skill and consistency in the Ars Magna, Thjis year's contest was much closer, but ultimately the same winner as last year. Not surprisingly, the winner also won the most awards during the year (42). 1st. Richard Grantham 676.59 2nd. Mey Kraus 647.78 3rd. David Bourke 628.70 4th. Larry Brash 453.98 5th. Jaybur 446.62 6th. Adrian Hickford 312.69 7th. Tom Myers 249.97 8th. David Green 186.50 9th. Mick Tully 183.09 10th. Rick Rothstein 154.12 Richard has won 98 Anagrammies and has promised me that he will give us all a chance to catch up with him this year. --------------- Congratulations to all the winners for this year. It is late and I ma going to bed.