Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27507

Date 13 November 2019
Number 27507
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 84
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27507

* 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 03:53 114 135
edwards.robert1 04:20 04:15 98 116
Magoo 06:08 06:09 100 119
tiljo 06:39 07:09 107 127
Eamon Ryan 06:52 06:19 91 108
Jason 07:19 09:31 130 154
verlaine Verlaine 07:39 06:16 81 96
mistigris 08:16 07:06 85 101
aphis99 aphis99 08:43 06:06 69 82
Midas 09:33 07:46 81 96
hilarym 09:40 09:56 102 121
boulemiche 09:43 09:25 96 114
robertL 09:47 09:21 95 113
AlanS 09:58 13:51 138 164
asaldanha 10:10 12:54 126 150
chindit 10:29 08:10 77 91
Derek Harrison 10:46 08:51 82 97
Paul Gilbert 10:52 12:27 114 135
chriswords 11:26 09:51 86 102
lickert 12:17 09:40 78 92
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 11:32 92 109
jimpen 13:06 09:45 74 88
Spur58 13:16 11:46 88 104
p.wild 13:43 11:33 84 100
noidea 13:43 12:25 90 107
fshephe 13:53 10:09 73 86
SimonAnthony 14:02 12:32 89 105
Topical Tim Topical Tim 14:05 10:29 74 88
neilr neilr 14:06 10:56 77 91
Silva 14:09 12:25 87 103
Sheapey Sheapey 14:20 13:23 93 110
Groucho 14:35 11:29 78 92
mikegrocott 14:40 17:14 117 139
Ben Staveley 14:45 17:20 117 139
Stavros Stavrolex 14:48 13:40 92 109
Tibthorpe 14:57 11:03 73 86
Big Mick 15:18 16:38 108 128
margaretl 15:29 17:45 114 135
HenryBW 15:37 13:04 83 98
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:44 10:19 65 77
cyrillic 15:53 13:15 83 98
David Crooks dcrooks 16:31 16:53 102 121
Spanna 16:31 14:36 88 104
phthisis 16:41 15:51 95 113
sotira (Sarah17) sotira 17:54 17:16 96 114
Viscomte 18:02 13:57 77 91
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 14:26 78 92
robinh 18:19 16:28 89 105
fuzz 18:39 15:10 81 96
rupe 18:47 13:12 70 83
GMcD 18:53 16:10 85 101
Craven 19:19 16:37 86 102
tapbarker 19:24 13:32 69 82
Squallaby 19:27 19:27 100 119
grape 20:04 22:01 109 129
annelambirth 20:15 21:50 107 127
Looch 20:39 14:52 71 84
barracuda barracuda 21:16 24:01 112 133
jimwetzler 21:17 17:00 79 94
andrewlake 21:28 19:26 90 107
mcjwright 21:34 22:57 106 126
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 21:35 18:50 87 103
pterodactyl 22:00 16:53 76 90
sampson 22:07 22:00 99 117
gbestanley 22:14 23:04 103 122
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 47:45 214 254
benedick 22:18 18:45 84 100
cath23 22:36 16:24 72 85
Solver52 22:53 17:02 74 88
jaraab 23:24 17:13 73 86
colin2355 23:32 16:47 71 84
george.garlick 24:04 25:28 105 125
Speedcop2 24:22 20:20 83 98
Bert Dove 25:56 17:40 68 80
zythum 26:05 25:21 97 115
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:14 19:59 76 90
goblin 26:27 24:31 92 109
Yatton50 26:39 24:08 90 107
dec 26:43 30:13 113 134
timbo 26:48 20:06 75 89
GeorgeTz 27:06 24:04 88 104
fudgiebates 27:10 26:12 96 114
diogenes 27:27 26:13 95 113
phmfantom phmfantom 27:53 23:50 85 101
Manveru 28:11 30:11 107 127
William M 28:27 24:22 85 101
endafk 28:29 16:38 58 69
Jagsfan1971 29:16 29:37 101 120
alwsn8 29:29 16:45 56 66
iagmathewson 29:37 22:06 74 88
James P Special_bitter 30:33 15:29 50 59
Paul H. Dear 30:55 23:57 77 91
nekabue 31:31 30:26 96 114
HanS 31:48 35:28 111 132
Semillon 32:42 23:43 72 85
Big Nug 33:27 36:43 109 129
Mkgnao Mkgnao 33:33 37:34 111 132
koro kororareka 33:55 34:26 101 120
SwissWavey 34:17 43:49 127 151
Glyndwr 34:27 26:56 78 92
Crippens1 34:54 30:56 88 104
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 35:27 23:46 67 79
maryht 36:34 37:30 102 121
1234 36:37 34:49 95 113
Tudds 37:21 15:32 41 48
SlumdogEngineer 39:40 45:07 113 134
empty 40:40 36:14 89 105
Curarist Curarist 40:43 49:55 122 145
Nangle 40:46 18:12 44 52
Paulypops 40:53 28:41 70 83
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:06 46:16 112 133
Dandy 43:31 26:30 60 71
Scottie 44:05 25:43 58 69
SK42 44:33 32:46 73 86
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 39:43 87 103
FrameShift 47:42 39:38 83 98
starstruck starstruck_au 47:42 29:57 62 73
symbenall2 48:46 32:27 66 78
kjbr 51:15 61:50 120 142

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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