The Awardsmaster's Challenge is an occasional category, where the Awardsmaster suggests that members find the best anagram with a set piece of text. This was originally a verse from a well-known poem. However this later envolved in using other text, often on a topical theme.
July 2000
[Our first Challenge was to anagram the first stanza of The Tiger by William Blake into a new poem about a different animal]
Martin Rand with:
Tiger! Tiger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
=
Gerbil! Gerbil! Toasty warm
On the filthy hamster farm,
Grind thy huge symmetric teeth
On fruit of fig (or underneath).
November 2000
[This challenge was to anagram the nursery rhyme "I am a pretty little Dutch girl" into a new poem set in a different country.]
Richard Grantham with:
I am a pretty little Dutch girl,
As pretty as I can be.
And all the boys in the neighbourhood
Are crazy over me!
=
An elderly Palm Beach citizen,
I leer at my bingo card:
To play it's rather easy, uh?
But *voting* there's too hard!
March 2001
[This challenge was to anagram the first stanza of My Love is like a Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns into a new poem about a different flower]
Richard Grantham with:
O my love is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my love is like the melody,
That's sweetly played in tune.
=
You need my seed, my Lily raw,
So ever hot like nettles;
I'd love to surge within your jeans
And smell the pinky petals.
April 2001
[This challenge was to anagram the first stanza of Jabberwocky into a "translation" of Carroll's nonsense original.]
Mike Keith with:
'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
=
He, Lewis, grabbed the vibrant role,
Assembled dreams and rhymes with glee,
But vowed that one most mighty goal:
Originality.
July 2001
[This challenge was to anagram the first stanza of The Village Blacksmith by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow into a new poem about a different occupation.]
Richard Grantham with:
Under a spreading chestnut-tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.
=
Within a tubby grandma's legs
An intern gyno stands;
If he gives the hairy clam a smear
And then inspects her glands,
The matron surely starts to muse,
"I wish he'd warmed his hands."
June 2002
[After an absence of nearly one year, and following the move from alt.anagrams, the Awardsmaster's Challenge was reactivated. Group members began reworking Steve Krakowski's classic anagram, and a Challenge was organised.]
Larry Brash with:
"That's one small step for a man; one giant leap for mankind." Neil Armstrong =
An "Eagle" lands on Earth's moon, making a first small permanent footprint.
April 2003
[Following the move to the Anagrammy Forum, this Challenge on a topical news item got the ball rolling again.]
Richard Grantham with:
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) =
So current rare disease proves a mystery.
August 2003
[A number of good anagrams on the text below prompted this challenge.]
Richard Grantham with:
Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary =
Net creation is immense word library.
November 2003
[The 40th anniversary of this famous event prompted this challenge.]
Jesse Frankovich with:
The fortieth anniversary of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy =
A jarring shot on that sad, stern Friday invokes fifteen dozen inferential hypotheses.
December 2003
[This Challenge allowed any text on a Christmas theme, rather than the usual fixed text]
Adrian Hickford with:
A school nativity play =
So plan a holy activity.
January 2004
[The Challenge became a more regular feature with three consecutive monthly competitions.]
Richard Grantham with:
New Year's Resolution =
Only we aren't serious!
March 2004
[Not all Challenges follow a topical theme, as this example showed.]
David Bourke with:
The way to a man's heart is through his stomach =
That is *a* way...another's ammo through his chest!
May 2004
[This month's Challenge was to select the best of our members' entries to the Washington Post's Style Invitational, which was on topical anagrams.]
Meyran Kraus with:
Senator Kerry claims that Bush's foreign policy is "Ineffective" =
So sorry if I'm coarse, but try asking if the chief can even *spell* it.
June 2004
[This challenge was to commemorate the death of the former President, Ronald Reagan.]
Meyran Kraus with:
The American President Ronald Wilson Reagan =
A real moron, in acting AND western leadership.
August 2004
[This Challenge was planned well in advance of the Athens Olympcs.]
Richard Grantham with:
The Games of the Twenty-eighth Olympiad =
Go play with the mighty then defeat some!
September 2004
[This challenge was to provide anagrammed speech bubbles for a photograph from the recent anagrammatists' get-together in London.]
Meyran Kraus with:
October 2004
[This challenge was to predict the winner of the US Presidential elections between Bush and Kerry, both of whose names could be found in the subject letters.]
Richard Grantham with:
Who, you may ask, will be the next American President? =
I expect Dubya has won: a new term is more than likely.
December 2004
[Our traditional Christmas theme challenge. Traditional? Well, OK, it is just the second time we have run it.]
Mike Mesterton-Gibbons with:
Christmas Greetings =
Grinch misses target.
March 2005
[Our Easter-theme Challenge]
Richard Grantham with:
The Passion and the Resurrection =
Death upon cross, inter, then arise.
June 2005
[We had two challenges this month. The first was to anagram a famous criminals name. The second was to anagram: "The Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud"]
Mey Kraus with:
Bonnie Parker & Clyde Barrow =
Known pair declare: "Robbery!"
Rick Rothstein with:
The Austrian neurologist, Sigmund Freud =
Guilt ensures anguish of a tortured mind.
July 2005
[This month's challenge was to create a pangram, an anagram using the 26 letters of the alphabet. The winner, Richard Grantham, managed to create a quiz with his entry]
Richard Grantham with:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz =
A quiz by RJG: Os + V + Xe + Cl + Fm + ? = K + Pd + W + Th + N + ?
[The solution]
A RJG quiz: Os + V + Xe + Cl + Fm + B = K + Pd + W + Th + N + Y
[Atomic numbers add up to 275:]
76 + 23 + 54 + 17 + 100 + 5 = 19 + 46 + 74 + 90 + 7 + 39
[Letters (using A=1, B=2, etc) add up to 121:]
(15+19) + 22 + (24+5) + (3+12) + (6+13) + 2 = 11 + (16+4) + 23 + (20+8) + 14 + 25.
September 2005
[This month's challenge was inspired by an excellent anagram of the American Pledge of Allegiance found on Wikipedia by one of our members, who was trying to identify the author. We were unable to find out who created it, but it made me decide that it would be worth using it for a challenge.]
Anonymous with:
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." =
I, George W. Bush, an evil Republican fascist, used God to inflict pain on the world, end life, facilitate death, create militant jihad rebels, and to let youths die for nothing.
December 2005
[Our usual Christmas challenge]
Tony Crafter with:
The Christmas movie 'It's A Wonderful Life' =
Festive old film hit is sure to charm anew.
February 2006
[This challenge was to honor the 2006 Winter Olympics]
Tony Crafter with:
The Twentieth Winter Olympic Games =
We meet top men in white Lycra tights!
June 2006
[We had so many anagrams of "The World Cup Finals in Germany" that we split them into two categories: ones with references to competing countries and one without such references.]With a competing country:
Richard Grantham with:
The World Cup Finals in Germany =
England fail, country whimpers.
Without a competing country (A tie):
Larry Brash with:
The World Cup Finals in Germany =
Crushing win led from a penalty.
Paul Pan with
The World Cup Finals in Germany =
Champions win, feel truly grand!
December 2006
[In December 2006, it was decided to rename this category as the "Anagrammy Challenge". It would be held every month, with a different member putting up a challenge. The first of these challenges was by Larry Brash, who asked members to anagram (in poem or song style) this verse from Tom Lehrer's spoof of Christmas carols. On this occasion, the challenger won the competition.]Larry Brash with:
Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest ye merry merchants,
May ye make the Yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and buy!
=
Tom Lehrer made us swoon,
Rearranging a Christmas tune.
He beheld the haughty greed,
What they buy, I do not need.
Lying market survey ploys,
Alas, kindhearted giving us toys.
As the Anagrammy Challenge became a regular feature in 2007, challenges are no longer archived here. The Challenge winners can now be found in the yearly winners pages.
