Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27537

Date 18 December 2019
Number 27537
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 71
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27537

* 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 03:21 98 138
Magoo 06:08 05:27 88 123
tiljo 06:39 05:42 85 119
Eamon Ryan 06:52 05:15 76 107
Jason 07:19 04:50 66 92
verlaine Verlaine 07:39 05:14 68 95
mistigris 08:16 05:17 63 88
aphis99 aphis99 08:43 06:20 72 101
Midas 09:33 05:14 54 76
richard 09:35 07:38 79 111
hilarym 09:40 08:51 91 128
boulemiche 09:43 09:12 94 132
robertL 09:47 10:01 102 143
AlanS 09:58 10:02 100 140
asaldanha 10:10 06:52 67 94
chindit 10:29 14:41 140 197
chriswords 11:26 08:00 69 97
ChuckB 11:40 12:02 103 145
glheard glh 11:49 09:54 83 116
tiggis 12:03 10:39 88 123
lickert 12:17 06:54 56 78
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 08:13 65 91
Kinghedger 12:47 07:47 60 84
keriothe_ keriothe 13:35 13:05 96 135
p.wild 13:43 11:49 86 121
noidea 13:43 10:55 79 111
fshephe 13:53 11:35 83 116
SimonAnthony 14:02 08:07 57 80
John Walsh 14:05 13:08 93 130
Topical Tim Topical Tim 14:05 05:42 40 56
neilr neilr 14:06 08:47 62 87
Silva 14:09 08:33 60 84
Sheapey Sheapey 14:20 09:00 62 87
aphasic 14:32 14:34 100 140
Groucho 14:35 09:35 65 91
mikegrocott 14:40 11:27 78 109
Ben Staveley 14:45 11:41 79 111
Stavros Stavrolex 14:48 06:10 41 57
jim42078 14:51 02:27 16 22
Tibthorpe 14:57 14:28 96 135
HenryBW 15:37 13:41 87 122
Malcj malcj 15:39 09:50 62 87
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:44 14:00 88 123
cyrillic 15:53 12:16 77 108
Sue Sweeper 16:15 07:49 48 67
David Crooks dcrooks 16:31 14:22 86 121
phthisis 16:41 11:03 66 92
KenG 16:43 09:55 59 83
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:43 09:55 59 83
oshinmark 17:23 14:17 82 115
sotira (Sarah17) sotira 17:54 10:51 60 84
RobR RobR 17:57 12:22 68 95
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 14:55 81 114
robinh 18:19 18:21 100 140
fuzz 18:39 12:35 67 94
GMcD 18:53 11:47 62 87
LouWeed LouWeed 18:54 09:51 52 73
LuckOfLucien 19:11 20:05 104 146
Craven 19:19 13:56 72 101
tapbarker 19:24 12:40 65 91
Squallaby 19:27 15:15 78 109
grape 20:04 16:08 80 112
annelambirth 20:15 12:40 62 87
kath 20:34 20:28 99 139
Looch 20:39 10:35 51 71
barracuda barracuda 21:16 20:45 97 136
Hamish.S 21:24 17:09 80 112
andrewlake 21:28 14:05 65 91
mcjwright 21:34 10:25 48 67
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 21:35 13:58 64 90
pterodactyl 22:00 22:43 103 145
gbestanley 22:14 22:56 103 145
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 17:07 76 107
benedick 22:18 21:42 97 136
John Arnold 22:29 17:09 76 107
Solver52 22:53 17:57 78 109
brian.mcnamara 23:06 15:25 66 92
Pootle Pootle 23:20 23:20 100 140
colin2355 23:32 13:45 58 81
hugh.schofield 24:02 17:12 71 100
Bert Dove 25:56 13:24 51 71
goblin 26:27 16:23 61 85
timbo 26:48 22:14 82 115
GeorgeTz 27:06 18:36 68 95
phmfantom phmfantom 27:53 21:36 77 108
Manveru 28:11 18:01 63 88
William M 28:27 17:14 60 84
endafk 28:29 16:43 58 81
jdavidliddell 29:03 21:37 74 104
NAPASAI napasai 29:03 18:32 63 88
Jagsfan1971 29:16 21:58 75 105
alwsn8 29:29 16:13 55 77
James P Special_bitter 30:33 12:36 41 57
nekabue 31:31 22:47 72 101
HanS 31:48 24:28 76 107
rosselliot 32:37 20:29 62 87
ulaca ulaca 32:40 25:43 78 109
Semillon 32:42 26:09 79 111
JE59 33:26 27:14 81 114
Big Nug 33:27 15:35 46 64
stainl665 33:55 25:55 76 107
koro kororareka 33:55 23:46 70 98
SwissWavey 34:17 13:45 40 56
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 35:27 17:10 48 67
orieltonhouse 36:34 95:12 260 366
1234 36:37 23:03 62 87
Tudds 37:21 17:39 47 66
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 38:03 25:26 66 92
empty 40:40 30:48 75 105
Curarist Curarist 40:43 25:59 63 88
Paulypops 40:53 38:02 93 130
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:06 27:31 66 92
Archie 43:20 29:30 68 95
Dandy 43:31 32:53 75 105
dannyduncs dannyduncs 43:54 47:35 108 152
Ronnie 44:20 32:56 74 104
SK42 44:33 26:32 59 83
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 18:07 39 54
starstruck starstruck_au 47:42 24:42 51 71
FrameShift 47:42 35:31 74 104
Masha 49:35 28:46 58 81
kjbr 51:15 36:39 71 100
jackk.larg 55:46 74:40 133 187

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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