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2009 Grand Amagrammy Awards was the 12th annual running of our best of the best anagrams of the past year. We had only 35 voters, the lowest in many years, but equal to the monthly average this year. Unfortunately, getting the Anagrammy Awards on Facebook has not made much impact on voter numbers. There are over 110 people on our email reminder list, meaning that less than one third actually vote. Fortunately, the Forum remained quite busy this year, with usually well over 1000 posts most months. We are winning the battle with spammers by improving our ability to block their posts. Thank you to our Forum Moderators for removing spam soon after it appears. As with last year, it is always pleasing to see new members joining us, and also to see old members dropping in to participate, even after several years absence. However, there was no new member that was good enough and active enough to win this year's Rookie of the Year Award |
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As usual, the General Category was a close affair for most of the three days. Anyone of the first six could have won an award. Neil's witty anagram led for much of the way until the last 12 hours, when Adie passed him with his December winner. It was good to see occasional poster, Paul Lusch pick up a Grand, his second. He last won in 2005. Neil Ramsay, who has been much quieter this year, picked his third Grand. |
1 | Adie Pena | 27 | You can't teach an old dog new tricks = Work on educating old cats. They can! |
2 | Neil Ramsay | 25 | First base Second base Third base A home run = Smooch Rate breasts Hand in briefs Use a bed. |
3 | Paul Lusch | 23 | Righteous indignation = Idiot shouting in anger. |
4 | Meyran Kraus | 20 | If love isn't here ~ then life is over. |
4 | Tony Crafter | 20 | At the vicar's sermon, I think: ~ 'Is it over? Thank Christ! Amen.' |
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Great win for Dharam here coming in nearly 20 points ahead. She was never in doubt. |
1 | Dharam Khalsa | 42 | Conceptual artist Andy Warhol = A red soup can! Why not call it art? |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 23 | Fourth "Indiana Jones" movie by Steven Spielberg = I have a big problem, just one: Ford is seventy-nine! |
3 | Scott Gardner | 22 | The novella "A Christmas Carol," by Charles Dickens = A rather classic book enchants every small child. |
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A fairly close contest. View looked the strongest on Day One, with Rick also in contention. However Adie polled more strongly in the second half of the event. |
1 | Adie Pena | 36 | The U.S. says "Good-bye!" = Yes, Bush goes today! |
2 | Andrew Brehaut | 30 | The Normandy landing site = A silent morning then... D-Day. |
3 | View | 28 | The Climate Talks = Task: Halt ice melt! |
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Very good win here for Adie, who never looked like losing. |
1 | Adie Pena | 39 | President Obama = Man to be praised. |
2 | View | 27 | President Barack Hussein Obama = He's boss in a bankrupted America. |
3 | Tony Crafter | 20 | Piers Morgan. Simon Cowell. Amanda Holden = Nerd on panel. Megalomaniac. Oh...Miss World! |
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Dharam took an early lead here and was never in doubt. |
1 | Dharam Khalsa | 37 | Himalayan Mount Everest = A summit nearly to Heaven. |
2 | Dharam Khalsa | 24 | Amnesty International = Meant to nail tyrannies. |
3 | Scott Gardner | 23 | The Palestinian Territories = Anti-Israeli protest in there. |
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I had Mey down as the likely winner here and Tony as runner-up and at first voters agreed. However, on the final day, Chris came into contention and won by just two points. |
1 | Christopher Sturdy | 27 | President Obama - so good they inaugurated him twice = George Bush - a dimwit idea you'd spit at more than once! |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 25 | Whose accents are these? 1. "Burn da ganja, mon!... = 1. Sting's 'Jamaican' 2. An Americanized Hugh L... |
2 | Rosie Perera | 25 | Miss California's breast implants funded by pageant = And it seems super big tits and small brain can pay off. |
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With the new rule to reduce the number of entries to a mazimum of three per entrant, the field was reduced to two from Dharam and three from Tony who had won this category 10 ten times in 2009. Given Tony's track record, I would have predicted that he would have won. However, Dharam led strongly earlier on. Tony came into contention but not close enough to win. Ultimately, Dharam's two entries tied, giving her two wins in this category. |
1 | Dharam Khalsa | 30 | Basic Wedding Cake Recipe 6 cups soft cake flou... = Recipe for Upkeep of a Happy Marriage 1/2 gal... |
1 | Dharam Khalsa | 30 | The U.S. Postal Service created a postage stamp ... = After a month of extensive tests, the appointe... |
3 | Tony Crafter | 28 | THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE TODAY. The telephon... = NO MORE TOMORROWS A solemn Stephen Stein retu... |
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Three entrants here and all reduced the entries to three each. While Mey and Tony looked like dominating the event, Adie squeezed into third place towards the end. It is a very fair result that each of them won an award in this category, given the brilliant work involved in this category. |
1 | Meyran Kraus | 22 | This sonnet by Shakespeare was anagrammed into a sonnet for Spring with an unusual constraint |
2 | Tony Crafter | 18 | THE TIGER By William Blake. |
3 | Adie Pena | 15 | Valentine Day Anagram Puzzle |
4 | Meyran Kraus | 14 | William Shakespeare's Sonnet 24 |
4 | Tony Crafter | 14 | AUSSIE RECRUIT'S LETTER HOME. |
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This was a start to finish win for Chris's whose recent Rude winner was the voter's favourite. Chris won two Grands this year, giving him a total of seven. |
1 | Christopher Sturdy | 30 | An utter poser I knew... = Pretentious wanker! |
2 | Larry Brash | 16 | Praise genitals = "It's a large penis!" |
3 | Adie Pena | 14 | Practised fellatio = Delicate art of lips. |
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Early on William's Anagram Genius was fairly close behind Mike's Anagram Artist, but Mike opened an unassailable lead to win yet again. Mike has won this award nine times and now has a total of 19 Grand Awards. |
1 | Mike Keith | 46 | Anagram Artist 3.05 |
2 | William Tunstall-Pedoe | 31 | Anagram Genius Version 9 |
3 | Andrew Trevorrow | 5 | Anagrams 2.4 (Macintosh) |
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This category is Traditionally close and was again this year. I was the early leader, but I expected to be beaten by some of the excellent anagrams here. Certainly two of the best won here in a tie. |
1 | Dharam Khalsa | 10 | Conceptual artist Andy Warhol = A red soup can! Why not call it art? |
2 | Adie Pena | 10 | President Obama = Man to be praised. |
3 | Larry Brash | 9 | Prostate Specific Antigen = Test if cancer is eating Pop. |
4 | Meyran Kraus | 8 | It's a life worth living ~ if I win that girl's love! |
5 | Tony Crafter | 8 | At the vicar's sermon, I think: ~ 'Is it over? Thank Christ! Amen.' |
6 | Larry Brash | 8 | Laughter is the best medicine = The genial side is much better. |
7 | Neil Ramsay | 7 | First base Second base Third base A home run = Smooch Rate breasts Hand in briefs Use a bed. |
8 | Adie Pena | 7 | You can't teach an old dog new tricks = Work on educating old cats. They can! |
9 | Paul Pan | 7 | Pandemics = Meds panic! |
10 | Paul Lusch | 6 | Righteous indignation = Idiot shouting in anger. |
11 | David Bourke | 6 | Caster Semenya = Yes, a secret man! |
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It is always hard to pick who will win this one given the high standard. Traditionally the winner of the Special Category is the winner and the tradition continued with Mey's win. Mey had two Grand wins this year, relatively quiet for him. He has amassed a total of 42 Grands since 1998. |
1 | Meyran Kraus | 16 | This sonnet by Shakespeare was anagrammed into a sonnet for Spring with an unusual constraint |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 11 | William Shakespeare's Sonnet 24 |
3 | Dharam Khalsa | 11 | The U.S. Postal Service created a postage stamp ... = After a month of extensive tests, the appointe... |
4 | Tony Crafter | 10 | A blind cowboy wanders into an all-girl biker ba... = A cowboy went into a Starbucks and ordered a c... |
5 | Adie Pena | 10 | Valentine Day Anagram Puzzle |
6 | Meyran Kraus | 9 | On Shakespeare |
7 | Tony Crafter | 9 | VINCENT by Don McLean |
8 | Tony Crafter | 9 | THE TIGER By William Blake. |
9 | Tony Crafter | 8 | THE NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE TODAY. The telephon... = NO MORE TOMORROWS A solemn Stephen Stein retu... |
10 | Tony Crafter | 7 | AUSSIE RECRUIT'S LETTER HOME. |
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No winner this year. Unfortunately there was no new member who stood out this year. The few new members that we had did not stay around long or failed to win any awards. |
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Dharam Khalsa Dharam was Rookie of the Year last year, and continued to show great development as a very accomplished anagrammatist, winning 16 monthly awards, showing skills in short and long anagramming. Her showing in the Grands was phemonenal, winning six awards, a feat rarely achieved. |
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Adie Pena I was undecided early on whether Mey or Adie would be granted this award. Both had been quite consistently successful during the year. Mey had won more awards, but Adie had higher DFE points. I decided to see how they both performed in the Grands before making my final decision. This award gave Adie six Grands, equalling Dharam's feat. |
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Tony Crafter Another well-deserved win again this year. Tony continues to dominate the longer categories, but is often up there in the short categories, too. He often wins multiple awards each month, including seven in November. This year he won 44 monthly awards. This was his third DFE award and his 11th Grand Anagrammy. |
Congratulations to all the winners. Thank you all for voting.