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47 voters included one person who must have started voting just minutes before voting closed. The vote arrived 10 minutes after closure. I accepted the vote and the only significant difference it made was to cause a draw in Rude. This month was characterised by most categories being very close, with some real cliff-hanger finishes. There was a fairly good spread of winners, 16 awards between 10 members, with Tony taking out four awards and I won three. This month, we decided to start a monthly Anagrammy Challenge, with a roster of 12 regulars selecting a text to be anagrammed. I believe it will added a new level of interest, as people always seem to enjoy this type of event. |
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There were two serious comptitors here, Rosie and Mey. Rosie started well, with a five point lead over Mey at the 12 hour mark. In the next 12 hours, Mey shot past her and was leading by nine points at the end of Day One. Rosie clawed that lead back on Day Two, at the end of which Mey was one point ahead. Rosie got back into the lead on the final day, however Mey closed rapidly, but ended up just one point behind at the close of the competition. This was Rosie's fifth win this year and her ninth all-up. She is now in 27th place on the All Time Table. The fight of third place was almost as intense. Andrew was in third place after 12 hours, then Rick and Mike shared that spot at the end of the first day. After another 24 hours, Andrew was in third, but Tony came out of nowhere to grab the award by seven points. |
1 | Rosie Perera | 62 | Oral contraceptive = I can protect a lover. |
2 | Mey Kraus | 61 | The cigarette company = I pay them to get cancer. |
3 | Tony Crafter | 30 | An adolescent = Note lad's acne! |
4 | Rick | 23 | A deathbed confession = One faces bad shit done. |
5 | Andrew | 19 | "Death before dishonour" = Hero of oath ends buried. |
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The winning margin this category was the exception this month, with Ellie winning by a massive 52 points. After being away from the awards with major computer problems, she managed to email me and asked me to run this anagram in the January competition. I misunderstood and ran it this month. I think that this would have won in any month. Ellie looked the winner with the first few hours and her winning margin increased almost expontentially as the event continued. Ellie has had four wins this year and has 15 all-up, moving her to 19th on the All Time Table. We looked forward to her return to anagramming. |
1 | Ellie | 85 | Paris in the springtime ~ might inspire painters. |
2 | Scott Gardner | 33 | Gaston Leroux's "The Phantom of the Opera" = Oh, ghost to haunt expert female soprano! |
3 | Tony Crafter | 27 | A Christmas Carol. The story by Charles Dickens = Boss-character lacks charity, then? Miserly sod! |
3 | Larry Brash | 27 | The late actor Humphrey DeForest Bogart = Best role for me? Act tough hard-heart type. |
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Sometimes a great anagram will just appear before you; others take a lot of work to come up with a good result. My winner here was one of the latter. With a large field of good quality anagrams, I was not overly confident about my chances of success. I knew David's Pinochet would be a strong contender, too. I led by two points after 12 hours. David was ahead by one point at 24 hours. After 48 hours I was back in the lead by two points, and so it went on, down to the line, with a one point lead at the finish. By the way, the anagram does not neccessarily reflect my opinion of Her Majesty. It's just the way the letters fell... believe me! |
1 | Larry Brash | 39 | The Queen's Annual Christmas Day Broadcasts = She's quite a lady, but transcends as a monarch. |
2 | David Bourke | 38 | General Pinochet is dead = A Chilean's ego-trip ended. |
2 | Andrew | 38 | Farts forced the American Airlines plane to land = Match lit after inferno in arse scared planeload. |
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Another close one. Rick took an early of four points after 12 hours and maintained that margin after 24 hours with Andrew, Ellie and Tony close behind. Tony took the lead on Day Two, but Rick polled well when it counted and won by four points. This was Rick's 10th win in what has been a very successful year for him, giving him a total of 23 awards. |
1 | Rick | 34 | U.S. Secretary of Defense, Robert Michael Gates = Rumsfeld's career? A fiasco! Better yet, he's gone! |
2 | Tony Crafter | 30 | The President of Russia = Sheer disaster of Putin! |
3 | Dee4j | 28 | It's dopey Bush = Boy, he's stupid. |
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This was a very competitive category this month and the lead changed hands constantly Rick led out on Day One with five point gap. Mey passed him after 24 hours with Tony and myself in contention. Rick and Mey shared a good five point lead at the end of Day Two. To my surprise, the voters favoured my entry on the last day and overtook them to win by five points. |
1 | Larry Brash | 46 | The Anagram Artist Windows Software = Ah, it was so swift at word arrangement! |
2 | Rick | 41 | The Old Testament's ~ themes tend to last. |
3 | Tony Crafter | 40 | Seattle Airport = A pilot's retreat. |
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This was another category where the final day's voting had a huge effect on the outcome. Mike had the lead by six points at the 12 hour mark. He maintained a clear lead over the first two days with Tony being his only serious competition. On the last day, Tony shot past him and won by a surprising 11 point margin. Three way tie for third. |
1 | Tony Crafter | 64 | Are 'conspiracy theories' on Princess Diana's death true? = |
2 | Mike Mesterton-Gibbons | 53 | Away in a manger |
3 | Mey Kraus | 27 | The Royal New Zealand Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals = |
3 | David Bourke | 27 | The Democrats' American Presidential candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton = |
3 | Larry Brash | 27 | "I was not pleased that Hamas has refused to announce its desire to destroy Israel." - President George W Bush = |
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This was the first of the new Anagrammy Challenges, which will be a regular occurrence every month from now on. This month's challenge, that I set, was to anagram this verse from Tom Lehrer's spoof on the commercial emphasis on Christamas: As is often the case, the Challenge was closely fought. If I had to bet on the outcome, I would have put my money of Mey's very funny entry. Early in voting, Mey and Mike shared the lead, then Tony and I came into contention by the end of the first day. Mey was back in the lead at the end of the second day's voting with Mike, Andrew and myself just one point behind. On the final day, I moved into the lead and hung onto it, winning by four points. This surprise win brought my total for this year to eight and a grand total of 103. I have managed three wins in a month a couple of times before, but my DFE score was the first time that I scored more than 70 points. |
1 | Larry Brash | 36 | Tom Lehrer made us swoon, |
2 | Mey Kraus | 32 | Hey, heed a Santa at the mall, |
3 | Andrew | 31 | Away in a manger, |
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A regular feature in this category has been my and Tony's Joke to Joke (or half a joke an anagrammed into the other half) anagrams. He is usually more successful than me and it is clear that the genre is always appreciated by the voters. I thought this would be my strongest chance of a win this month, but soon realised that Tony was going to win when he opened up a 11 point gap after 12 hours. He kept a solid winning margin throughout, winning by 16 points. |
1 | Tony Crafter | 72 | ONIONS AND XMAS TREES The family are sitting ... = These inane remarks annoy his wife and daught... |
2 | Larry Brash | 56 | These are actual notes from Doctors patient charts... = "Healthy appearing, decrepit, ninety eight yea... |
3 | Rosie Perera | 37 | Interviewer: First on the show, we've got a man... = The Anagrammy Forum regulars (or occasional p... |
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Two anagrams of the same poem stood out as favourites at the start. Mey and David are experts at this genre and it was interesting to see who was going to win. At the 12 hour point, they were tied, 17 points clear of the pack. David had a small lead at the end of Day One and Day Two. Mey stole the lead on the final day, coming home seven points ahead. Third place was going to be hard to pick, until the final day and Tony broke clear to win by 11 points. Mey's two wins gave him 48 awards this year, which is a new record for the number of monthly awards in one year. He now has 281 awards in total. David's win gives him 18 for the year and 94 all-up. Tony gained four awards this month and bringing his total for 2006 to 27, which happens to be half of his total count on the All Time Table of 54. |
1 | Mey Kraus | 49 | 'Twas The Night Before Christmas |
2 | David Bourke | 42 | THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS |
3 | Tony Crafter | 30 | HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) |
4 | Paul Pan | 21 | A photo anagram |
5 | Michael | 17 | Southeast Asian Nations: |
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If you think most categories were close this month, well this was the closest and the final result was the fairest outcome. Andrew took the early lead of seven points by 12 hours, with View narrowing it to three by the end of Day One. Day Two saw View take the lead by two points. On the final day, it was very close, never more than a point ot two apart. When I closed the voting, it looked like Andrew had won on his own, but when I found that a late vote arrived 10 minutes later, I was delighted to see that View had tied with him. Andrew's win was his 11th this year - a brilliant result, given he joined us just six months ago. View's win was his sixth for the year and his 14th altogether. |
1 | Andrew | 49 | Pornographic flick = Girl on prick of chap. |
1 | View | 49 | Penis enhancement surgeries = Nurse, get me spare nine inches! |
3 | Larry Brash | 33 | Taking it up the arse = That is a Greek input. |
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I was ready to select View's Rude entry, which I liked a lot, but when I realised that he had won an award, I had no hesitation in picking Mike's runner-up in Medium. He went very close to winning after leading for the first two days.
Mike has won three awards this year, doubling his total awards to six. |
Congratulations to all the winners. Thank you all for voting.