These were the 10th Grand Anagrammy Awards to be held and we had the highest voter turn-out ever for the Grands with 54 voters.

2007 bought some changes to the Anagrammies. As most of you are aware, I have reduced my involvement in anagramming and running the website. I have stopped doing the monthly results write-up, but have decided that the Grand Anagrammy write-up is too important event to miss. I hope at some stage to bring the Literary Archives up to date. Some of the more obscure stats pages have not been updated this year and there is no plans to restart them. I plan to continue my involvement at approximately my current level.

On the topic of running the website, I would like to pause and thank the members of the Anagrammy Team for assist with moderating the Forum and who have helped control the spam attack that occurred late 2007. Thank you, Forum Moderators David Bourke, Tony Crafter, Chris Sturdy, Paul Pan, Neil Ramsay; Rediscovery Checker Mey Kraus; and Technical Wizard Rosie Perera. All of you have given valuable assistance to keep the Forum running smoothly.

Thank you all for posting to the Forum. 2007 was the busiest year ever and it was good to see a few new members getting involved, especially Adie Pena who was the top poster.

This is always such a hard category to pick just three selections, as the standard is traditionally very high.

At the 12 hour mark, Tony and Mey shared the lead, nine points clear of the pack. By the start of Day Three, Mey was well clear, with Scott moving into second place and Tony in third. Rosie picked up a lot of voter on the last day to jump from sixth to third.

This was Rosie's second Grand Anagrammy.

1

  Meyran Kraus

54  

Military weapon = Employ it in a war.

2

  Scott Gardner

36  

A picture is worth a thousand words = Icon did surpass what author wrote.

3

  Rosie Perera

32  

College graduation ceremony = Local guy, art degree, no income.

4

  Tony Crafter

31  

A man-eating lion = One giant animal!

5

  Tony Crafter

30  

A life support machine = Can pump if I lose heart.

This category was hotly contested this year.

Tony shared the lead at 12 hours with David and Adie. Starting Day Three, Tony was still in the lead, four points clear of two of Mey's anagrams. He fought off a strong finish from Mey's very funny entry.

1

  Tony Crafter

43  

'Oliver Twist'. The novel by Charles Dickens = Scrawny bloke sent child to thieve silver!

2

  Meyran Kraus

40  

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End = The noble epic of bandits was rated "Arr!"

3

  Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

36  

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster = Saga of Britons' tea-empire days.

This was a runaway winner to Scott, with what was the winning anagram in May which won by a huge 41 point margin back then. This time the margin was 47 points. The clever formatting of this anagram (not shown here) made it really popular with the voters.

1

  Scott Gardner

84  

1. Britney Spears 2. Lindsay Lohan 3. Paris Hilton = 1. Lady in rehab 2. Lass in therapy 3. Lost in prison

2

  Meyran Kraus

37  

Students' Massacre at Virginia Tech = This sad, tragic event stuns America.

3

  Ellie Dent

36  

Sunrise at Stonehenge = See the season turning.

This was quite an interesting contest to follow.

David was the leader by 2 points after 12 hours, followed by two of Mey's. Mey's Clinton anagram, still very topical, gathered votes and he was seven points clear with 24 hours to go and and finished convincingly clear by 11 points.

1

  Meyran Kraus

59  

William Clinton, the former president of the USA = I am now free of politics... I let the Mrs. run the land!

2

  David Bourke

48  

William Henry Gates and Melinda French = Really damn rich gentleman and his wife.

3

  Meyran Kraus

45  

The Immortal Bard, William Shakespeare = This admirable writer shall make a poem.

This was a great battle!

Chris was just one point ahead of Neil half-way through Day One.. There were never far apart during the second day, The final 24 hours was a cliff-hanger, with Neil holding a small lead. The last vote favoured Chris ending the contest in a well-deserved draw.

1

  Neil Ramsay

58  

The Bush Administration's foreign policy ~ is an upsetting, horrific myth based on oil.

1

  Christopher Sturdy

58  

The Disney Corporation = Deep in cartoon history

3

  Andrew Brehaut

36  

West Holland = The lowlands.

This started as a close contest, but Tony soon had it in the bag.

Mey and Tony were tied at 12 hours, Tony entered the final day nine points ahead and surged to a 17 point margin at the end.

1

  Tony Crafter

63  

"Oh, why did you make woman so beautiful?" the m... = "Ay true," the man says, "but God, why did you ...

2

  Meyran Kraus

46  

The ABC network says it had chosen to find a new... = That letter stated: "We forbid it on the air. W...

3

  Neil Ramsay

26  

Customer: Waiter Waiter, what is this fly doing ... = Waiters tip: Ahem, I would fancy he's trying to...

The big challenge for Tony here was should he select his best 2 or 3 of his 9 long joke-to-joke anagrams, or should be run with all of them. He decided on the latter option.

Andrew and Chris were the early contenders, but gradually Chris built up a good lead and won comfortably with Tony taking the next three places.

Chris won his first two Grand Awards in this year's event.

1

  Christopher Sturdy

40  

How to Make a Woman Happy It's not difficult to ... = WHEN IS A WOMAN WRONG? Man has often been cri...

2

  Tony Crafter

28  

A seven-year old boy and his four-year old broth... = Bored young Rick was doing very badly in maths...

3

  Tony Crafter

23  

The attractive woman was sitting alone in the ba... = Like most travel writers, Adam made for the ho...

In this category, Mey and Andrew chose to reduce their number of entries and this seemed to consolidate the positions.

Mey, Andrew and Neil were in that order after 12 hours. Mey had clearly secured the win by the end of Day Two, but then went on and took out second place, too. Andrew's third palce was challenged by Mike's entry towards the end.

1

  Meyran Kraus

38  

Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep...

2

  Meyran Kraus

30  

When I do count the clock that tells the time...

3

  Andrew Brehaut

28  

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house...

4

  Mike Keith

26  

Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know...

5

  Neil Ramsay

22  

Desiderata

The Big Two went head-to-head again this year, with the same result as there has been for the last seven years, with Mike's Angram Artist coming in comfortably ahead of William's Anagram genius.

Both are great products. Members of the Forum, especially those who create long anagrams, have always favoured Artist over Genius and this probably skews the results.

1

  Mike Keith

51  

Anagram Artist 3.05

2

  William Tunstall-Pedoe

32  

Anagram Genius Version 9

3

  Onno Zweers

11  

FART (Free Anagram Research Tool) 5.1

This was another closely fought contest. Rick had four of the twelve entries.

Scott led by one point over two of Rick's after 12 hours. Over the next day or so, Adie came from 8th place to equal leader with Scott.. the final 24 hours were intense with Adie scrapping in by just one point.

1

  Adie Pena

30  

Britney Spears' opening act at MTV Awards = Embarrassing twat in pop dance travesty!

2

  Scott Gardner

29  

Impotence treatment = Men attempt erection.

3

  Rick Rothstein

26  

Having a sex-change operation = Oh, a penis-to-vagina exchanger.

Normally, there are just so many contenders here for this award, that the leader does not emerge early in the competition. However, this year was an exception.

Scott's big winner in Topical was a clear favourite with the voters and he powered ahead winning by 13 points, a very big margin considering the size of the field.

1

  Scott Gardner

34  

1. Britney Spears 2. Lindsay Lohan 3. Paris Hilton = 1. Lady in rehab 2. Lass in therapy 3. Lost in prison

2

  Meyran Kraus

21  

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End = The noble epic of bandits was rated "Arr!"

3

  Neil Ramsay

16  

The Bush Administration's foreign policy ~ is an upsetting, horrific myth based on oil.

4

  Christopher Sturdy

15  

The Disney Corporation = Deep in cartoon history

5

  Meyran Kraus

11  

Military weapon = Employ it in a war.

6

  Meyran Kraus

11  

William Clinton, the former president of the USA = I am now free of politics... I let the Mrs. run the land!

7

  Adie Pena

11  

Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary = Oscar-nominated tale unnerving the country.

8

  Mike Mesterton-Gibbons

10  

A Passage to India by E.M. Forster = Saga of Britons' tea-empire days.

9

  Meyran Kraus

10  

United States politics = Suspect it's oil-tainted.

10

  Rosie Perera

9  

College graduation ceremony = Local guy, art degree, no income.

Again, this is a category where the competition is also very intense and it is hard to predict a winner.

While this was closer the the Best Overall Short, Andrew led from the beginning to the end, usually by less than a handful of points. His recent win in December's Special, was still ringing in the ears of the voters and to beat Mey here is quite an achievement.

1

  Andrew Brehaut

23  

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house...

2

  Meyran Kraus

20  

Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep...

3

  Mike Keith

19  

Peruse this writing here, and thou shalt know...

4

  Christopher Sturdy

17  

How to Make a Woman Happy It's not difficult to ... = WHEN IS A WOMAN WRONG? Man has often been cri...

5

  Neil Ramsay

16  

Desiderata

6

  Tony Crafter

14  

LUCY IN THE SKY WITH DIAMONDS by The Beatles

7

  Meyran Kraus

12  

Two loves I have of comfort and despair...

8

  Meyran Kraus

10  

The ABC network says it had chosen to find a new... = That letter stated: "We forbid it on the air. W...

9

  Tony Crafter

10  

"Oh, why did you make woman so beautiful?" the m... = "Ay true," the man says, "but God, why did you ...

10

  Tony Crafter

8  

THE IRISH CHRISTENING Paddy's pregnant sister w... = A HOLY CROSSNESS! Seamus asked Pat how he got...

Adie Pena.

Adie has been the ultimate Rookie. He posted more than anyone else to the Forum and picked up ten awards in his first year, a feat achieve by very few regulars here. There were very few other good rookies this year, but that does not detract from this award as he performed better than many of us old hands.

This award gave Adie two Grands.

Neil Ramsay

Neil was technically ineligible for the Rookie Award, as it was his second year with us, however, he was certainly the most improved , picking up nine awards during the year.

Neil won his first two Grands in this competition.

Andrew Brehaut

Last year's Best Rookie, continued to mature as a great anagrammatist with some remarkable wins in the whole range of categories. He won 19 awards in 2007.

Andrew won three Grands this year, giving him a total of eight.

Meyran Kraus

This award is rarely given and reserved for those who have had a big influence of the Anagrammy Awards.

Mey is one of our longest standing and most talented anagramatists. His involvement goes back to mid-1998, not long after first competition. It was not until late 2007, when his work committments became excessive, that he stopped submitting anagrams. We hope that this is a temporary break.

Mey has set the standard over the last ten years and forced the rest of us to raise our own standards to try and keep up with him. He has won well over 300 monthly awards.

Mey had five Grands this year and now has a total of38 Grand Anagrammy Awards.

Tony Crafter

Tony was the well-deserved winner here this year with nearly 1000 DFE points, including 107.42 in July. The competition between Mey and Tony for this award was quite close for most of the year, with Mey leading by a small margin early in the year. Tony moved well ahead in the second half and would have won comfortably even if mey had continued to compete.

Tony won three Grand Awards this year, taking his total to six all-up.