Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27501

Date 06 November 2019
Number 27501
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 93
Count of ref solvers 59
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27501

* 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
Nigel1953 03:24 04:06 120 129
edwards.robert1 04:20 04:18 99 106
Magoo 06:08 04:51 79 84
Eamon Ryan 06:52 06:27 93 100
Jason 07:19 07:30 102 109
verlaine Verlaine 07:39 08:21 109 117
mistigris 08:16 10:18 124 133
aphis99 aphis99 08:43 08:50 101 108
Midas 09:33 10:52 113 121
richard 09:35 09:11 95 102
hilarym 09:40 10:54 112 120
robertL 09:47 09:59 102 109
AlanS 09:58 11:44 117 125
asaldanha 10:10 08:08 80 86
chindit 10:29 09:10 87 93
Derek Harrison 10:46 10:54 101 108
Paul Gilbert 10:52 08:36 79 84
chriswords 11:26 12:39 110 118
ChuckB 11:40 10:56 93 100
glheard glh 11:49 16:23 138 148
tiggis 12:03 13:59 116 124
lickert 12:17 08:23 68 73
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 10:48 86 92
Kinghedger 12:47 14:03 109 117
keriothe_ keriothe 13:35 14:10 104 111
p.wild 13:43 12:34 91 97
noidea 13:43 10:10 74 79
fshephe 13:53 13:26 96 103
SimonAnthony 14:02 16:16 115 123
Topical Tim Topical Tim 14:05 13:02 92 98
neilr neilr 14:06 11:20 80 86
Silva 14:09 11:40 82 88
Sheapey Sheapey 14:20 18:38 130 139
andy 14:24 09:38 66 70
Groucho 14:35 13:31 92 98
mikegrocott 14:40 18:47 128 137
Stavros Stavrolex 14:48 17:57 121 130
Tibthorpe 14:57 14:12 94 101
margaretl 15:29 13:29 87 93
HenryBW 15:37 11:04 70 75
Malcj malcj 15:39 14:05 89 95
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:44 15:22 97 104
cyrillic 15:53 13:29 84 90
David Crooks dcrooks 16:31 12:19 74 79
Spanna 16:31 14:57 90 96
phthisis 16:41 15:23 92 98
KenG 16:43 18:57 113 121
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:43 18:57 113 121
sotira (Sarah17) sotira 17:54 12:22 69 74
RobR RobR 17:57 11:11 62 66
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 20:23 111 119
robinh 18:19 19:55 108 116
fuzz 18:39 27:45 148 159
GMcD 18:53 14:49 78 83
LouWeed LouWeed 18:54 17:16 91 97
tapbarker 19:24 14:09 72 77
Squallaby 19:27 33:48 173 186
grape 20:04 22:08 110 118
Looch 20:39 24:20 117 125
barracuda barracuda 21:16 26:03 122 131
andrewlake 21:28 20:25 95 102
mcjwright 21:34 35:22 163 175
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 21:35 16:45 77 82
sampson 22:07 23:24 105 112
gbestanley 22:14 15:11 68 73
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 24:11 108 116
benedick 22:18 29:31 132 141
John Arnold 22:29 24:19 108 116
cath23 22:36 17:08 75 80
Solver52 22:53 22:41 99 106
brian.mcnamara 23:06 20:50 90 96
Pootle Pootle 23:20 20:47 89 95
hugh.schofield 24:02 20:01 83 89
zythum 26:05 24:15 92 98
goblin 26:27 20:03 75 80
GeorgeTz 27:06 29:30 108 116
fudgiebates 27:10 28:43 105 112
phmfantom phmfantom 27:53 32:10 115 123
Manveru 28:11 26:37 94 101
William M 28:27 24:28 85 91
NAPASAI napasai 29:03 25:39 88 94
nekabue 31:31 36:16 115 123
JoeyC 31:34 27:44 87 93
HanS 31:48 39:52 125 134
ulaca ulaca 32:40 38:03 116 124
Big Nug 33:27 32:42 97 104
Mkgnao Mkgnao 33:33 32:55 98 105
stainl665 33:55 28:12 83 89
koro kororareka 33:55 35:14 103 110
SwissWavey 34:17 45:34 132 141
Glyndwr 34:27 46:43 135 145
Crippens1 34:54 28:01 80 86
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 35:27 38:56 109 117
maryht 36:34 38:04 104 111
Tudds 37:21 27:09 72 77
SlumdogEngineer 39:40 23:22 58 62
Curarist Curarist 40:43 57:58 142 152
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:06 72:44 176 189
vissa 43:57 40:45 92 98
Ronnie 44:20 44:04 99 106
MrChumley MrChumley 45:16 28:02 61 65
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 37:58 83 89
FrameShift 47:42 44:42 93 100
starstruck starstruck_au 47:42 48:30 101 108
Masha 49:35 40:03 80 86
kjbr 51:15 90:29 176 189
jackk.larg 55:46 62:02 111 119

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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