Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27544

Date 26 December 2019
Number 27544
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 70
Count of ref solvers 59
Ref solvers excluded with errors 7
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27544

* 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 04:57 145 207
Eamon Ryan 06:52 04:57 72 102
Jason 07:19 03:43 50 71
verlaine Verlaine 07:39 04:14 55 78
aphis99 aphis99 08:43 05:42 65 92
Midas 09:33 09:40 101 144
robertL 09:47 10:28 106 151
AlanS 09:58 12:03 120 171
asaldanha 10:10 05:42 56 80
ChuckB 11:40 11:29 98 140
glheard glh 11:49 08:29 71 101
tiggis 12:03 08:26 69 98
lickert 12:17 10:05 82 117
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 09:18 74 105
keriothe_ keriothe 13:35 10:01 73 104
noidea 13:43 09:22 68 97
p.wild 13:43 11:23 82 117
fshephe 13:53 12:30 90 128
Topical Tim Topical Tim 14:05 07:51 55 78
neilr neilr 14:06 08:02 56 80
Silva 14:09 08:38 61 87
andy 14:24 14:53 103 147
aphasic 14:32 07:44 53 75
Groucho 14:35 11:16 77 110
Stavros Stavrolex 14:48 09:31 64 91
Tibthorpe 14:57 09:53 66 94
Big Mick 15:18 16:11 105 150
tunflog 15:26 12:04 78 111
Malcj malcj 15:39 13:04 83 118
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:44 11:54 75 107
cyrillic 15:53 10:48 67 95
Sue Sweeper 16:15 10:13 62 88
David Crooks dcrooks 16:31 08:45 52 74
Spanna 16:31 15:28 93 132
KenG 16:43 14:19 85 121
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:43 14:19 85 121
rrricharrrd 17:15 27:27 159 227
sotira (Sarah17) sotira 17:54 11:14 62 88
RobR RobR 17:57 11:26 63 90
fuzz 18:39 14:05 75 107
rupe 18:47 19:54 105 150
MK76 18:50 12:16 65 92
GMcD 18:53 15:30 82 117
LouWeed LouWeed 18:54 12:32 66 94
Craven 19:19 12:22 64 91
tapbarker 19:24 09:25 48 68
Squallaby 19:27 11:09 57 81
KET 20:00 22:32 112 160
Looch 20:39 17:32 84 120
barracuda barracuda 21:16 20:03 94 134
jimwetzler 21:17 13:20 62 88
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 21:20 16:59 79 112
Hamish.S 21:24 21:45 101 144
andrewlake 21:28 16:38 77 110
mcjwright 21:34 13:41 63 90
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 21:35 12:53 59 84
pterodactyl 22:00 23:54 108 154
sampson 22:07 20:52 94 134
gbestanley 22:14 18:43 84 120
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 34:45 155 221
benedick 22:18 17:50 79 112
Zander 22:32 12:51 57 81
Solver52 22:53 13:10 57 81
brian.mcnamara 23:06 26:32 114 162
Pootle Pootle 23:20 07:56 34 48
jaraab 23:24 22:43 97 138
flounderbout 23:47 12:48 53 75
george.garlick 24:04 15:38 64 91
zythum 26:05 17:26 66 94
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:14 17:17 65 92
goblin 26:27 15:02 56 80
dec 26:43 18:17 68 97
timbo 26:48 17:54 66 94
GeorgeTz 27:06 18:08 66 94
fudgiebates 27:10 22:54 84 120
jdavidliddell 29:03 22:08 76 108
NAPASAI napasai 29:03 22:20 76 108
alwsn8 29:29 19:43 66 94
James P Special_bitter 30:33 15:48 51 72
nekabue 31:31 15:35 49 70
HanS 31:48 28:07 88 125
ulaca ulaca 32:40 24:41 75 107
Semillon 32:42 29:44 90 128
JE59 33:26 37:34 112 160
Big Nug 33:27 23:40 70 100
Jeeves 33:44 21:07 62 88
koro kororareka 33:55 21:32 63 90
joss henry 33:57 47:49 140 200
Glyndwr 34:27 31:22 91 130
Crippens1 34:54 33:46 96 137
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 35:27 19:15 54 77
orieltonhouse 36:34 70:53 193 275
1234 36:37 22:14 60 85
MrGrumpy 36:51 19:29 52 74
Tudds 37:21 20:59 56 80
SlumdogEngineer 39:40 43:15 109 155
empty 40:40 30:21 74 105
Curarist Curarist 40:43 68:23 167 238
Gussie 40:45 26:16 64 91
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:06 46:24 112 160
Maggot 41:59 55:41 132 188
Archie 43:20 38:51 89 127
Ronnie 44:20 69:13 156 222
SK42 44:33 21:10 47 67
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 26:04 57 81
FrameShift 47:42 44:10 92 131
paulmcl paulmcl 49:26 39:21 79 112
Shushannah 50:43 43:28 85 121
andrewmr 50:55 41:58 82 117

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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