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Here are the results of our 14th Grand Anagrammy Awards, featuring the best of the monthly winners of the last twelve months. We had a good turnout of voters this year with 43 voters, the highest number of voters in three years. Overall it has been a very satisfactory year with the Forum remaining very active and generally problem-free. We had to dispatch a couple of pests who thought that we were a good venue for posting large lists of meaningless anagrams. They were wrong, but it took a little convincing to show them that they were wrong! The standard of anagramming remains very high as one could see with the usual high standard making it through to the Grands. My specials thanks goes to Harshal for two very impressive feats. Firstly, for bringing the archives back up to scratch again, and secondly, for running the December Awards in a very competent fashion in my absence. Without him, we would have had to skip the awards for that month, something that we have never had to do before. There now exists a manual on running the awards, that my impending holidays forced me to finally sit down and write before I left. |
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I was not surprised that Rick won with his entry here. It epitomises the features that make an angram not just good, but what makes it great: brevity (with 11 letters, it was the shortest anagram in the whole competition), aptness and humour. Rick led all the way, finishing 9 points ahead. There was the usual and expected battle for the 2nd and 3rd places, with Mey in the top three much of the time. Mike's 3rd place gave him his first Grand Anagrammy. |
1 | Rick Rothstein | 45 | Suicide note = I used it...once! |
2 | Tony Crafter | 36 | Money is the root of all evil = Yet the love of oil is normal? |
3 | Mike Mesterton-Gibbons | 35 | All good things must come to an end = Man, those glad times couldn't go on! |
4 | Meyran Kraus | 32 | A shared illusion ~ is all in our heads. |
5 | Meyran Kraus | 27 | Laughter is the best medicine = In this bad time, glee's the cure. |
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This was another predictable winner with Harshal's perfect anagram. He had a big 15 point lead after 12 hours, and although gap narrowed with later voters leaning towards Scott's clever entry, Harshal was never in doubt as a winner. |
1 | Harshal M | 50 | Murals on the Sistine Chapel ceiling = This is Michelangelo's true pinnacle. |
2 | Scott Gardner | 42 | A vodka martini shaken, not stirred = That is a drink one movie star drank. |
3 | Larry Brash | 26 | Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush star in "The Kings Speech" = S.. s.. sorry.. ar.. it.. its.. er.. not.. f.. f.. f.. uc.. cking he.. he.. he.. helping! |
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This was a pleasant surprise for me. I took an early modest lead and managed to keep ahead of the pack, cruising in ten points ahead. This was my 18th Grand Award. |
1 | Larry Brash | 36 | Australian Floods = Our island's afloat! |
2 | Andrew Brehaut | 26 | The Apple founder Steve Jobs has died = Dad's leftover iPhone just shed a beep. |
3 | Scott Gardner | 23 | The terrorist Osama bin Laden = An order obliterates this man. |
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My apologies about the small glitch here leaving out Neil's subject line. Fortunately I quickly corrected this and it did not effect the oncome. Mey was the leader at 12 hours, and View was often in contention, but it was Neil who finished strongly to win by seven points. This was Neil's fifth Grand Anagrammy. |
1 | Neil Ramsay | 41 | Severiano Ballesteros = Valor es sobresaliente. [This roughly translates to "Courage is outstanding."] |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 34 | Bad people rotting in hell = e.g. Hitler, Pol Pot, Bin Laden. |
3 | View | 32 | Don Corleone = No one colder. |
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This was the most closely contested category. At the 12 hour mark, David, Ivan and Mey shared the lead with Scott just three points behind. After 30 voteers, Scott broke clear and maintained enough lead to win his ninth Grand. |
1 | Scott Gardner | 41 | The Aston Martin DBS = Mr. Bond's in that seat. |
2 | David Bourke | 36 | New Oxford English Dictionary = Literacy-honing index of words. |
3 | Ivan Andonov | 31 | The Commonwealth of Australia = A home to all who can surf it, mate! |
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This was reasonably close with Mey the early leader by six points at 12 hours. Tony reeled him in and managed to keep a secure lead for the rest of the competition. |
1 | Tony Crafter | 36 | There are skinny boobs (.)(.) There are larger ... = There are normal boobs ( . )( . ) Silicone boo... |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 30 | Monsters that someone made up: Hannibal Lecter ... = Modern creeps that are *real* monsters: Charle... |
3 | Adie Pena | 22 | ... = ... |
3 | Ellie Dent | 22 | One day, this bear walked up to the Hogshead Bar... = 'Cool. But why the big pause?' asked the barten... |
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This was always going to be a Battle of the Long Giants, Mey and Tony. As in the Medium Category, Mey was the early leader at 12 hours just three points ahead of Tony. Tony was ahead soon after that and maintained a small lead coming in three points clear. |
1 | Tony Crafter | 40 | THE TOP TEN GREATEST BRITONS OF ALL TIME (As vot... = 1. Bullish World War II Prime Minister. Beat N... |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 37 | A bunch of cinematic citations taken from AFI's ... = The movies they are from, along with notes: 1... |
3 | Ellie Dent | 28 | A MAN'S GUIDE TO FEMALE ENGLISH 1. You are so m... = 1. You need a shave and you sweat a lot 2. I h... |
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What a massive, and high quality, field this was! The ultimate result was, however, not unexpected. The genius and inventiveness of Mey's anagrams continues to boogle the minds of us mere mortals. From the beginning, Mey's three were well clear of the pack, with Harshal doing well to be 15 points behind at 12 hours. Later voting narrowed the gap very slightly, but the final result was never in doubt. |
1 | Meyran Kraus | 37 | The full lyrics of the song "Tears Dry On Their Own" |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 29 | A sonnet by Shakespeare, anagrammed into another sonnet which commemorates Jobs in 3 ways. |
3 | Meyran Kraus | 25 | Caelica 86 |
4 | Dharam Khalsa | 16 | Autobiography |
5 | Adie Pena | 12 | Afternoon In February |
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A bit of a stuff-up here, with Dharam's January 2011 winner (Please, no Rude anagrams in subject lines = Manners! Spare us bleeding ejaculations!) being accidentally left out because of a mistake I had made 12 months before updating the Grand Anagrammy Archives. Unfortunately, this was not picked up until several votes had been made and it was too late to substitute it. My apologies to Dharam, as I think her entry could have done well. However, nedesto's very clever entry here was always going to be hard to beat. He was 11 points clear by 12 hours and maintained a good gap on the field after that. |
1 | nedesto | 39 | His epic orgasm = Seismographic! |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 28 | The lubricated penis = Bet it can slide up her! |
3 | Meyran Kraus | 27 | Huge motorcar to magnify one's penis? = You are compensating for something. |
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The winner of General is usally a good chance of winning here and this year was no exception. As I have said above, Rick's little gem has all the characteristics of a great anagram and was the deserved winner here. He was five points ahead at 12 hours and his winning gap of nine points in this event is massive, when one considers that there 62 short anagrams and that 44 of them obtained at least one point in this category. Rick's two wins in this competition take his total of Grand Anagrammy Awards to nine (equal 8th place). |
1 | Rick Rothstein | 21 | Suicide note = I used it...once! |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 12 | A shared illusion ~ is all in our heads. |
3 | Larry Brash | 10 | Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush star in "The Kings Sp... = S.. s.. sorry.. ar.. it.. its.. er.. not.. f.. ... |
4 | Mike Mesterton-Gibbons | 10 | All good things must come to an end = Man, those glad times couldn't go on! |
5 | Harshal M | 10 | Murals on the Sistine Chapel ceiling = This is Michelangelo's true pinnacle. |
6 | nedesto | 9 | Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes = Vexing quest coloured by dementia. |
7 | Neil Ramsay | 9 | Severiano Ballesteros = Valor es sobresaliente. [This roughly translates to "Courage is outstanding."] |
8 | Tony Crafter | 8 | Money is the root of all evil = Yet the love of oil is normal? |
9 | Andrew Brehaut | 7 | The Apple founder Steve Jobs has died = Dad's leftover iPhone just shed a beep. |
10 | Mike Keith | 7 | NINETY/TEN + TWELVE - THREE = TWENTY + ELEVEN - THIRTEEN. (90/10 + 12 - 3 = 20 + 11 - 13 = 18) |
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Well, no surprises here. The winners of the Special Category always clean up here. Mey's three Special winners took the first three place but not in the same order. |
1 | Meyran Kraus | 29 | The full lyrics of the song "Tears Dry On Their Own" |
2 | Meyran Kraus | 20 | Caelica 86 |
3 | Meyran Kraus | 15 | A sonnet by Shakespeare, anagrammed into another sonnet which commemorates Jobs in 3 ways. |
4 | Tony Crafter | 11 | There are skinny boobs (.)(.) There are larger ... = There are normal boobs ( . )( . ) Silicone boo... |
5 | Meyran Kraus | 11 | A bunch of cinematic citations taken from AFI's ... = The movies they are from, along with notes: 1... |
6 | Tony Crafter | 9 | THE TOP TEN GREATEST BRITONS OF ALL TIME (As vot... = 1. Bullish World War II Prime Minister. Beat N... |
7 | Ellie Dent | 9 | A MAN'S GUIDE TO FEMALE ENGLISH 1. You are so m... = 1. You need a shave and you sweat a lot 2. I h... |
8 | Adie Pena | 7 | Afternoon In February |
9 | Dharam Khalsa | 6 | Autobiography |
10 | Meyran Kraus | 5 | What is the Answer to the Ultimate Question of L... = Author Adams feels he's quite intuitive when he... |
11 | Harshal M | 5 | Clair de Lune |
12 | Ellie Dent | 5 | One day, this bear walked up to the Hogshead Bar... = 'Cool. But why the big pause?' asked the barten... |
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nedesto This was an easy choice. Ned joined us April 2011 when he received a mere 1.60 DFE points that month. However, he rapidly got the hang of it and over the next eight months had more than 70 DFE points in three competitions, picking ten winners in the process. Picking up two Grand Anagrammy Awards nicely rounded out his year. |
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Harshal M. Harshal, who joined us late in 2010, has shown great improvement in his anagramming skills (Sorry, if this sounds like a school report card, Harshal), picking up 11 monthly awards and well over 500 DFE points in the year, and of course, a great win in this competition in the Entertainment Category. Again, I would like to public thank him for running the December Awards while I was away and for updating the Archives. Harshal's two awards here give him a total of three Grands. |
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Meyran Kraus Mey started the year a little quietly, winning just one monthly award and having 49 DFE points in the first two months. However, he soon got into top gear, always winning a minimum of two awards and up to six awards each month, as well as ramping up his DFE points, never scoring less than 50 points and with two months where he scored 117 and 118 points. This award brings his total of awards in this competition to five, and a massive total of 57 Grand Anagrammy Awards. |
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Tony Crafter Tony accrued 954.51 DFE points and 31 monthly awards this year, a testimonial to his skills and consistency as an excellent all-round anagramatist in short and long categories. His lowest DFE for 2011 was 66.54, a score that would delight most of us. He cracked the magic 100 barrier once, with 106.37 in August, almost matching his previous best of 107.42 set in July 2007. This was his 16th Grand Anagrammy Award and third DFE award. |
Congratulations to all the winners. Thank you all for voting.