THE WINNERS April 2002 INTRODUCTION As the Anagrammy Awards entered their 5th year, the awards underwent a dramatic and somewhat painful change of direction with its breakaway from the alt.anagrams newsgroup. There has been much discussion about this and I do not intend to add any more to this, except to say that I hope that the Awards will continue in their new forum. The Forum has had approximately 300 posts in 3 weeks, and I would like to thank all those who have supported this new venture by posting to the Forum and for voting in the Awards. We had 31 voters (plus one whose votes were received after the voting was officially closed). We expected a big drop in voting following last month's record turnout of 50 and the schism. If there had been less than 20 voters, we would have considered folding up the Awards . 32 voters was therefore very gratifying. Many of our most trenchant critics have not voted in many months and their absence was not the cause of the voter drop. It is the drop in the number of voting lurkers that is the main cause for concern. I am strongly reconsidering whether to announce the opening of voting in alt.anagrams. As one member pointed out this sort of announcement is *on-topic* for an anagram newsgroup. ---------------- GENERAL CATEGORY Overall there was a not-unexpected reduction in the number of nominations in all categories. General usually has close to 20 noms, but this was halved this month. However, there will be still three awards. Adrian and Tom were the early leaders in Day One, with competition from Mey and David B. Adrian's finish was more consistent with 10 points in the last 5 votes, pushing him into a clear win. Mey's third place gave him his 14th award this year and his 94th All Time. 1st. Adrian Hickford with: 42 Funeral processions = Person's final course. 2nd. Tom Myers with: 30 Macular degeneration = Cruel damage on retina. 3rd. Meyran Kraus with: 26 Faintheartedness = Sensed fear in that. 4th. David Bourke with: 23 Mid-teenagers = Disagreement. 5th. Joe Fathallah with: 15 Cannabis Cafe = Faces-A-Ban Inc. ---------------------- ENTERTAINMENT This was cretainly the closest category of the competition with potential winners in David G, Adrian, Mey and Zoran. A powerful final day for David with 3 of the last 4 primary votes, shot him past Zoran. This was David's 5th win this year and his 8th ever. 1st. David A. Green with: 39 Actress Natalie Portman = Cast me a star part in 'Leon'. 2nd.Zoran Radisavlevic with: 37 Go, actress - get Oscars 3rd. Adrian Hickford with: 33 Walt Disney's "Toy Story" = Woody stars, tiny style. ---------------------- TOPICAL This month's main themes were the death of the Queen Mum and the non-death of Osama bin Laden. The standard was very good, but Mr. Topical's opening day was very strong and gave him a lead that was unbeatable. Tom had 2 wins this month, giving him 5 this year and a grand total of 45 wins. This puts him in a tie with Richard Brodie for 4th place on the All Time Table. 1st. Tom Myers with: 49 The hunt for Osama bin Laden ~ has not found the lamebrain. 2nd. Allan Morley with: 34 Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon = All eulogize sweet royal grandma in the Abbey. 3rd. Meyran Kraus with: 32 Osama bin Laden's New Video = Bad man lived on, as I now see. ---------------------- PEOPLES NAMES My entry was a bit of a late creation after a trying month where my anagramming was nearly non-existent. I was rather surprised to see how quickly the voters favoured this one. I had 7 of thelast 9 primary votes for a huge win. 1st. Larry Brash with: 49 The actress Mae West = Cast me, sweethearts. 2nd. Jaybur with: 28 A. Aspertini = Is a painter! 3rd. Alun Morris with: 27 Aretha Franklin = Finer than a lark. ---------------------- OTHER NAMES Another close one! Joe started strongly, but was challenged well by Adrian throughout. Adrian had 8 points on the last day; Joe had 6 points, but this was enough to give Joe his second Anagrammy (both in this category). 1st. Joe Fathallah with: 42 Anagram Genius = Gag in a surname. 2nd. Adrian Hickford with: 39 Serengeti = Green site. 3rd. Mick Tully with: 34 Morgan Stanley = Analyst-monger. ---------------------- SPAM My first long anagram in a few weeks! I owed it to Richard for the inspiration to create this one. Mey was never too far back from the lead. Two nominations and two wins! A rather lucky month! I have had 5 this year and stay in 3rd place on the All Time Table with 70 awards. 1st. Larry Brash with: 45 The World's #1 On-line Pharmacy 2nd. Meyran Kraus with: 39 *Pains in the butt but mostly harmless little misfortunes that happen to the best of us:* 3rd. Adrian Hickford with: 34 Welcome to the fun and excitement of Sea Scouting! ---------------------- LONG Only 4 contenders this month, and David Bourke entry was the best starter and held off Mey's stronger finish. David has had 42 wins in the Anagrammy Awards. 1st. David Bourke with: 55 Microsoft ScanDisk 2nd. Adrian Hickford with: 49 Each year the Washington Post's Style Invitational asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter and supply a new definition. 3rd. Lardy Girl with: 23 Found in the Kama Sutra: The people in the Southern countries have also a congress in the anus, that is called the lower congress'. ---------------------- SPECIAL -- Larry Brash, 23:54:53 05/09/02 Thu Only three starters here. We may well have to combine the long categories into one if this trend continues. Despite this the entries were all of good standard and all automatically win an award, but it will be Richard's first place that will go into the Grand Anagrammy Awards in January. Richard had 2 wins this month, 6 for the year and 104 all up. Adrian had 2 wins for the month, also 6 this year and 17 all up to get him into the Top Ten on the All Time Winners Board. Allan Morley has had 3 wins this year, 7 all up, putting him in the Top Twenty. 1st. Richard Grantham with: 53 [A poem by Edgar Allan Poe.] 2nd. Adrian Hickford with: 46 "Katherine" by Robert Louis Stevenson 3rd. Allan Morley with: 38 [A Nostradamus verse supposedly predicting Sept 11] ---------------------- AWARDSMASTER'S CHOICE AWARD FOR THE BEST NON-WINNING ANAGRAM. Not an easy choice this month. There were several worthy contenders here, including Allan Morley's Topical, Jaybur's and Alun Morris' Peoples Names and Adrian's Other Names. I try to pick someone who has not won in another category in the month and after some consideration, I decided on Jaybur's second place in Peoples Names: Jaybur with: A. Aspertini = Is a painter!