Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27502

Date 07 November 2019
Number 27502
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 85
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 27
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27502

* 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 03:31 103 121
Magoo 06:08 04:36 75 88
tiljo 06:39 09:08 137 161
Jason 07:19 05:27 74 87
verlaine Verlaine 07:39 06:48 88 103
aphis99 aphis99 08:43 07:18 83 97
Midas 09:33 08:27 88 103
hilarym 09:40 08:56 92 108
AlanS 09:58 10:32 105 123
asaldanha 10:10 05:05 50 58
Derek Harrison 10:46 09:18 86 101
Paul Gilbert 10:52 05:39 51 60
chriswords 11:26 09:57 87 102
glheard glh 11:49 12:41 107 125
tiggis 12:03 12:41 105 123
lickert 12:17 12:22 100 117
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 08:58 72 84
Kinghedger 12:47 10:04 78 91
jimpen 13:06 12:20 94 110
Spur58 13:16 12:48 96 112
keriothe_ keriothe 13:35 16:52 124 145
noidea 13:43 12:53 93 109
fshephe 13:53 11:26 82 96
SimonAnthony 14:02 09:42 69 81
John Walsh 14:05 12:43 90 105
neilr neilr 14:06 10:33 74 87
Silva 14:09 13:01 91 107
Sheapey Sheapey 14:20 13:28 93 109
aphasic 14:32 14:54 102 120
Groucho 14:35 14:06 96 112
Ben Staveley 14:45 25:40 174 204
Stavros Stavrolex 14:48 15:52 107 125
Tibthorpe 14:57 12:46 85 100
Malcj malcj 15:39 19:11 122 143
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:44 12:13 77 90
cyrillic 15:53 15:29 97 114
Sue Sweeper 16:15 17:23 106 124
Spanna 16:31 16:36 100 117
David Crooks dcrooks 16:31 13:27 81 95
oshinmark 17:23 17:16 99 116
sotira (Sarah17) sotira 17:54 12:29 69 81
RobR RobR 17:57 18:31 103 121
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 12:20 67 78
fuzz 18:39 13:52 74 87
rupe 18:47 11:39 62 72
GMcD 18:53 20:05 106 124
LouWeed LouWeed 18:54 14:22 76 89
Craven 19:19 19:04 98 115
tapbarker 19:24 16:26 84 98
Squallaby 19:27 12:45 65 76
KET 20:00 55:46 278 327
grape 20:04 24:30 122 143
Looch 20:39 21:26 103 121
jimwetzler 21:17 20:30 96 112
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 21:35 16:27 76 89
gbestanley 22:14 16:49 75 88
benedick 22:18 24:21 109 128
John Arnold 22:29 21:11 94 110
Zander 22:32 14:53 66 77
cath23 22:36 20:30 90 105
Solver52 22:53 23:06 100 117
Anna Lancefield 23:05 15:47 68 80
Pootle Pootle 23:20 30:21 130 152
hugh.schofield 24:02 16:14 67 78
george.garlick 24:04 19:16 80 94
zythum 26:05 20:58 80 94
Dzhigit dzhigit71 26:06 22:52 87 102
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:14 19:46 75 88
goblin 26:27 27:42 104 122
diogenes 27:27 33:11 120 141
phmfantom phmfantom 27:53 37:56 136 160
endafk 28:29 20:40 72 84
NAPASAI napasai 29:03 18:02 62 72
jdavidliddell 29:03 33:57 116 136
Jagsfan1971 29:16 22:45 77 90
alwsn8 29:29 31:28 106 124
Clovis 29:38 35:27 119 140
James P Special_bitter 30:33 23:59 78 91
Paul H. Dear 30:55 25:19 81 95
HanS 31:48 32:24 101 118
ulaca ulaca 32:40 27:17 83 97
Semillon 32:42 18:19 56 65
Mkgnao Mkgnao 33:33 23:12 69 81
Jeeves 33:44 26:57 79 92
koro kororareka 33:55 29:43 87 102
joss henry 33:57 23:34 69 81
Glyndwr 34:27 35:48 103 121
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 35:27 46:27 131 154
Tudds 37:21 56:22 150 176
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 38:03 30:45 80 94
Curarist Curarist 40:43 22:26 55 64
Nangle 40:46 41:04 100 117
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:06 31:03 75 88
Dandy 43:31 45:20 104 122
MrChumley MrChumley 45:16 29:57 66 77
starstruck starstruck_au 47:42 53:50 112 131
symbenall2 48:46 38:28 78 91
Masha 49:35 47:48 96 112
jackk.larg 55:46 48:34 87 102

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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