Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27496

Date 31 October 2019
Number 27496
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 91
Count of ref solvers 88
Ref solvers excluded with errors 12
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27496

* Requires access to the Times Crossword Club

Detailed solving results

Reference, Tracked and Blog solvers with error-free solutions to this puzzle are shown below.

We also show the solver's Personal NITCH, which is their result on this puzzle compared to their average time, and the Wavelength Index of Times Cryptic Hardness, the WITCH, which is the Personal NITCH compared to the SNITCH.

Name TfTT Name Average time This time Personal NITCH WITCH
Magoo 06:08 06:16 102 112
tiljo 06:39 07:29 112 123
Eamon Ryan 06:52 05:42 83 91
Jason 07:19 05:57 81 89
verlaine Verlaine 07:39 08:12 107 117
aphis99 aphis99 08:43 09:57 114 125
hilarym 09:40 09:44 100 109
robertL 09:47 08:32 87 95
asaldanha 10:10 13:35 133 146
chindit 10:29 12:00 114 125
Paul Gilbert 10:52 06:37 60 65
chriswords 11:26 09:43 84 92
ChuckB 11:40 14:28 124 136
glheard glh 11:49 13:22 113 124
tiggis 12:03 10:37 88 96
lickert 12:17 10:48 87 95
trux trux20 12:22 08:11 66 72
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 11:46 94 103
jimpen 13:06 11:58 91 100
Spur58 13:16 11:53 89 97
keriothe_ keriothe 13:35 09:47 72 79
p.wild 13:43 12:11 88 96
noidea 13:43 11:48 86 94
fshephe 13:53 10:48 77 84
SimonAnthony 14:02 13:47 98 107
Topical Tim Topical Tim 14:05 11:57 84 92
neilr neilr 14:06 12:29 88 96
Silva 14:09 13:34 95 104
Sheapey Sheapey 14:20 10:25 72 79
Groucho 14:35 13:34 93 102
Ben Staveley 14:45 18:12 123 135
Tibthorpe 14:57 13:16 88 96
margaretl 15:29 15:55 102 112
HenryBW 15:37 20:44 132 145
Malcj malcj 15:39 12:23 79 86
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:44 22:37 143 157
Sue Sweeper 16:15 20:52 128 140
David Crooks dcrooks 16:31 16:36 100 109
phthisis 16:41 16:53 101 110
Golvellius 17:52 14:33 81 89
RobR RobR 17:57 17:49 99 108
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 18:11 99 108
robinh 18:19 13:08 71 78
fuzz 18:39 14:09 75 82
rupe 18:47 19:10 102 112
GMcD 18:53 16:13 85 93
LouWeed LouWeed 18:54 22:13 117 128
LuckOfLucien 19:11 22:36 117 128
Craven 19:19 11:39 60 65
tapbarker 19:24 20:06 103 113
Squallaby 19:27 13:40 70 76
KET 20:00 18:10 90 98
annelambirth 20:15 19:02 93 102
Looch 20:39 15:48 76 83
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 21:20 16:28 77 84
andrewlake 21:28 19:32 90 98
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 21:35 12:59 60 65
pterodactyl 22:00 15:27 70 76
benedick 22:18 22:35 101 110
John Arnold 22:29 19:10 85 93
Pootle Pootle 23:20 23:56 102 112
colin2355 23:32 20:40 87 95
hugh.schofield 24:02 18:27 76 83
george.garlick 24:04 21:13 88 96
frost 25:19 19:08 75 82
zythum 26:05 23:06 88 96
timbo 26:48 23:57 89 97
Peter Sykes 28:40 22:56 80 87
HanS 31:48 24:01 75 82
stainl665 33:55 16:59 50 54
oldblueeyes 44:56 21:35 48 52

A guide to the solver status

Legend
 Reference solver used for SNITCH
 Other Reference solver
 Tracked solver
 Blog solver

Blog Solvers

Blog Solvers are those who have allowed their times to be taken from the Times for the Times blog.

Notes for Blog Solvers:

  • the most reliable format for reporting times is with format "mm:ss" or as "x minutes" in the title or at the start of the entry
  • only the first main comment for each blogger is used; responses to other comments or a second comment is ignored
  • to report errors, include "n errors" just after the time
  • If you just have a time it is assumed you have no errors unless you mention DNF or pink squares or giving up, etc, in the text
  • Examples of good time notifications are "38:30, 0 errors" and "39 minutes, 0 errors" in the comment title or as the first part of your comment

Notes

The definition of Reference and Tracked solvers is described on the Neutrinos page.

The results for Reference solvers are normally used to calcuate the SNITCH. When this happens they are shown in the list with a solid blue line to the left. In the previous SNITCH results listing for each crossword, these were the only entries shown.

The most common causes for Reference solver results not to be used are: (a) that they did not meet the criteria this month to be used as a reference (e.g. they may not have completed enough puzzles on each day of the week) or (b) they have been pushed out of the top 100 on the leader board. In these cases, the results are now shown, but their data is not used for the SNITCH calculation.

Where there is data for Tracked solvers, I show them also in this table. The solving data is not always available, as the Crossword Club site only shows the top 100 solvers to everyone. Logged-in users get their own leaderboard position and those around them, but this is not available to everyone. So the SNITCH site only gets data for those who have made the top 100 in the leaderboard at some point during the day.

As a result there are a few geographically advantaged solvers; those of us who solve early in the day (e.g. we in the Antipodes, those in Asia and those staying up late in North America) are more likely to hit the leaderboard even with slower times. Solvers who are just as capable but solve later in the UK day might not make the top 100 and I have no way to capture their results.

You may wonder why there are Tracked solvers (in red) with low average solving times, mixed in with the Reference solvers (in blue). These are usually those that, while they don't seem to be Neutrinos, are not well aligned to the SNITCH. So I don't use them as Reference solvers in the SNITCH calculation, but still show their overall results.

You might also notice that there's some inconsistency at the tail end of the Reference solver list. My cutoff point is an average solving time of 45 minutes. But if someone around this mark is chosen as a Reference solver, their next month's results might end up being over 45 minutes and they will still be used. Alternatively, a Tracked solver might creep in under 45 minutes on the next calculation, but didn't make the cut for the prior Reference list. It's on the to-do list to see if I can make this a bit more predictable.

Stored SNITCH Values

Here are the SNITCH values (stored on the day) from the crossword.

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