Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27559

Date 13 January 2020
Number 27559
Day of week Monday
NITCH 74
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 4
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27559

* 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 03:22 99 133
edwards.robert1 04:20 04:18 99 133
Magoo 06:05 04:49 79 106
Eamon Ryan 06:32 05:05 77 104
Jason 07:07 05:53 82 110
verlaine Verlaine 07:35 05:13 68 91
aphis99 aphis99 08:47 06:37 75 101
hilarym 09:36 08:23 87 117
richard 09:37 06:23 66 89
asaldanha 09:53 07:13 73 98
chindit 10:35 08:28 80 108
Derek Harrison 10:46 05:15 48 64
AlanS 11:02 10:21 93 125
glheard glh 12:01 14:06 117 158
lickert 12:14 09:56 81 109
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:45 12:32 98 132
lili 13:02 06:09 47 63
noidea 13:18 13:22 100 135
SimonAnthony 13:20 10:31 78 105
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:42 12:12 89 120
Silva 13:44 11:03 80 108
fshephe 13:47 13:16 96 129
neilr neilr 13:57 10:24 74 100
Sheapey Sheapey 14:01 09:02 64 86
aphasic 14:13 11:43 82 110
Groucho 14:22 10:21 72 97
jim42078 14:51 12:14 82 110
Stavros Stavrolex 14:55 08:48 58 78
Big Mick 15:11 17:11 113 152
Tibthorpe 15:17 14:57 97 131
tunflog 15:26 14:47 95 128
margaretl 15:29 14:41 94 127
HenryBW 15:39 12:04 77 104
Sue Sweeper 15:42 11:34 73 98
Malcj malcj 15:45 11:58 75 101
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:48 10:36 67 90
cyrillic 16:19 14:30 88 118
phthisis 16:31 12:21 74 100
KenG 16:40 15:37 93 125
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:40 15:37 93 125
David Crooks dcrooks 17:11 10:30 61 82
rrricharrrd 17:15 20:23 118 159
sotira (Sarah17) sotira 17:15 13:31 78 105
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:07 11:02 60 81
robinh 18:22 13:31 73 98
Golvellius 18:24 15:46 85 114
LouWeed LouWeed 18:24 19:00 103 139
Carol 18:33 14:23 77 104
Squallaby 18:38 16:45 89 120
fuzz 18:39 16:06 86 116
RobR RobR 18:50 19:30 103 139
MK76 18:50 11:46 62 83
tapbarker 19:05 13:37 71 95
Craven 19:06 11:39 60 81
GMcD 19:27 07:49 40 54
kath 19:55 20:56 105 141
annelambirth 19:58 18:17 91 122
Looch 20:07 13:59 69 93
LuckOfLucien 20:08 15:48 78 105
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 20:23 15:27 75 101
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 20:57 19:58 95 128
gbestanley 21:08 13:58 66 89
Hamish.S 21:24 20:33 96 129
taberdar 21:32 44:15 205 277
barracuda barracuda 21:42 19:06 88 118
mcjwright 22:43 15:52 69 93
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:46 10:41 46 62
sampson 22:49 20:49 91 122
John Arnold 22:50 24:35 107 144
Solver52 22:53 16:07 70 94
Pootle Pootle 22:58 16:30 71 95
george.garlick 23:36 21:43 92 124
jaraab 24:02 16:01 66 89
brian.mcnamara 24:04 18:13 75 101
hugh.schofield 25:27 19:43 77 104
goblin 25:35 17:24 68 91
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:49 16:55 65 87
dec 26:06 10:54 41 55
timbo 26:12 22:54 87 117
fudgiebates 26:41 23:26 87 117
GeorgeTz 26:43 20:08 75 101
zythum 27:06 24:02 88 118
NAPASAI napasai 28:05 21:43 77 104
endafk 28:14 22:19 79 106
jdavidliddell 28:20 20:42 73 98
Manveru 28:38 19:45 68 91
Peter Sykes 28:42 27:53 97 131
phmfantom phmfantom 29:07 24:33 84 113
James P Special_bitter 30:12 18:59 62 83
nekabue 30:47 20:46 67 90
alwsn8 30:48 16:33 53 71
HanS 31:48 30:11 94 127
ulaca ulaca 32:36 25:24 77 104
Agsurfer 32:38 40:22 123 166
koro kororareka 33:20 23:30 70 94
Mkgnao Mkgnao 33:33 24:59 74 100
SwissWavey 34:17 22:31 65 87
Jeeves 35:09 20:41 58 78
joss henry 35:32 37:41 106 143
Tudds 35:36 12:56 36 48
1234 35:58 22:46 63 85
Glyndwr 36:11 29:07 80 108
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 36:15 17:28 48 64
Crippens1 36:35 18:52 51 68
SlumdogEngineer 37:42 21:44 57 77
empty 40:40 35:27 87 117
Curarist Curarist 40:43 12:58 31 41
Gussie 41:19 20:23 49 66
Archie 42:28 23:10 54 72
Dandy 43:31 31:53 73 98
dannyduncs dannyduncs 43:54 33:25 76 102
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 31:51 70 94
FrameShift 47:42 39:21 82 110
symbenall2 47:45 29:44 62 83
Masha 49:35 32:43 65 87
kjbr 51:15 71:44 139 187
andrewmr 53:54 30:26 56 75
jackk.larg 55:46 65:24 117 158

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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