CCCWC February competition voters’ comments

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A clue to RAINBOW.
61 comments were received for this competition (from 11 competitors, 0 others)
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Comments on the competition
1.
Very few clues to admire unfortunately for such a colourful word.
2.
I thought this was a tough word to clue, and I don't think any of the entries had a wow factor. I'll be allocating far fewer than the maximum number of points.
3.
A good array of anagrams and charades made this comp a pleasure to mark, though the clue that stood out was the clever double meaning of 5. A rare opportunity well grasped. I was less taken with clues that defined a rainbow negatively; too many other things are not brown.
4.
The Brownie idea at 33 was very good and got my five points. Alas 3 seemed to get the Rainbow/Brownie progression in the wrong order and therefore failed to score.
5.
To me the clues which combined a good surface story and a well- disguised definition with fair to the solver word play were: 28 20 50 19 and 35 in that order of preference for the award of points. A very nice selection of clue types.

Comments on the clues

1. A brown one? That's crazy!

1.	Inadequate definition
2.	A loose definition of a rainbow.

2. A brown one’s unnatural: a coloured one’s natural

1.	Surface would have made sense only if there was indeed a brown rainbow.
2.	A little better than 1 but still loose.

3. A Brownie, all but finished, set to become this?

1.	A Rainbow becomes a Brownie, not vice versa
2.	Others will probably say, but Rainbows are the youngest group, then Brownies and then Guides.
3.	Not quite convinced by the all in one aspect, especially to produce 'rainbow' rather than 'Rainbow Guide'

4. A famous London theatre Bowie almost ran originally

1.	Good effort. Surface bumps at almost.
2.	The Rainbow’s heyday was before my time, but I like the link to Bowie

5. A sign of hope for couples coming out?

1.	Good clue.
2.	Nice double meaning
3.	Brilliant. Very clever.
4.	Very clever double meaning.

6. After a tussle with a brown I caught another trout (7)

1.	I can’t see what ‘caught’ is doing in the cryptic reading
2.	Best of the brown based anagrams for me. The first 'a' seems superfluous, but otherwise good surface reading.

10. Band with no dimension in broad arch.

1.	as for the &lit, a rainbow would be considered 3 dimensional

12. Bishop gets in a row waving around flag supporting Gay Pride?

1.	very good surface

16. Brown's one that may be combined with a variety of colours

1.	's is within the fodder
2.	The apostrophe s is superfluous to the anagram

17. Bruise hip when running into sailor in ruckus

1.	Complex construction well handled
2.	Very good surface

18. Coalition managed surrender without Independent

1.	Beautifully compact

19. Colourful exhibition from London-based artist?

1.	The slightly oblique wordplay works well
2.	deja vu
3.	Very good clue but 'London-based' seems less fair to the solver than 'cockney' in 20 to indicate 'Bow'

20. Colourful exhibition of cockney artist (7)

1.	This really needs a ? like 19
2.	Some indicator for cryptic meaning in wordplay would be ideal
3.	The use of 'cockney' to indicate 'Bow' seems much fairer to the solver than 'London-based' in 19. Excellent.

21. Colourful nation, from whom bandit Afro turned but was not at odds

1.	‘Colourful nation’ defines a nation but not a rainbow
2.	A bit contrived, but the surface reading was so good it deserved points

23. Dazzling array of colours puts artist in front.

1.	I like ‘in front’ for ‘in bow’. I think a rainbow is more vivid than dazzling.
2.	Nice structure but not convinced 'dazzling' is quite right
3.	Nice solid charade

24. Drunk in bar with woman, imbibing love is a many splendoured thing (7)

1.	w abbreviates ‘women’, not ‘woman’

25. Highly coloured bands in curly brown hair, cut short on the sides

1.	Novel structure and different story but doubts about use of 'curly' (rather than curling) and 'highly'.
2.	Cleverly disguised

28. Injured rib now sporting a colourful bruise

1.	Simple wordplay that works very well
2.	Enviable example of concise clue-writing with excellent surface story – perfect.

29. Iridescent bands with gold finish.

1.	I’m not keen on cryptic defs, but this is nicely done

30. Meteorological phenomenon is mostly Brownian motion

1.	Cryptically, though, it’s mostly Brownian in motion

32. Noah's arc?

1.	Nice def, but needs some wordplay
2.	Sophisticated use of pun (are/ark) which has no need of sermonic exegesis; simply give ref. Gen. 9.13
3.	Oh dear, I can't help myself being drawn towards the superb wordplay in this decidedly un-Ximenean offering! But why (my pet hate) the lengt
4.	Made me smile. :)

33. Not quite a Brownie? That could be me

1.	Nice idea, well executed. The near-anagram was a godsend to those who spotted it.

35. Quarrel about a recycling bin of many colours

1.	A good clue – a bit different in its structure and story.

36. Raw book, not OK, in upheaval

1.	The book defined is ‘The Rainbow’ not ‘Rainbow’

41. Seduce brain with love's illusory hope (7)

1.	Nice idea and image but syntax doesn't quite work (needs to be 'seduceD' vel sim

42. Show from East End artist?

1.	Why define with a TV programme when an artistic definition is so readily available (cf other clued along these lines)?

43. Some trout in a brook or wide stream

1.	I can’t see any evidence for b = brook

45. Spectral dawns of red and indigo, not black or white

1.	I wouldn't normally go for an all-initials clue but this one flows smoothly – only clues 45 and 50 seems to have made the happy 'black or wh

47. Starting off in VIBGYOR, regular pattern emerges and endlessly combines to get white (7)

1.	Clever but too forced

49. Vibrant combination of brown with a hint of ivory (7)

1.	One of the better browns
2.	Good clue structure but brown and ivory are just not 'vibrant' colours

50. What provides glimpses of red and indigo, not brown or white

1.	It's not easy to produce a coherent surface story using 7 first letters and this is neatly done
2.	(See comment on clue 45)