Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27577

Date 03 February 2020
Number 27577
Day of week Monday
NITCH 66
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27577

* 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
edwards.robert1 04:20 04:20 100 151
Magoo 06:00 04:35 76 115
Eamon Ryan 06:27 05:22 83 125
tiljo 06:39 06:37 99 150
Jason 07:06 04:13 59 89
verlaine Verlaine 07:36 05:53 77 116
mistigris 07:52 05:45 73 110
aphis99 aphis99 08:44 04:13 48 72
Midas 09:38 05:52 60 90
asaldanha 09:43 06:29 66 100
hilarym 09:51 10:10 103 156
boulemiche 10:05 08:15 81 122
chindit 10:30 07:17 69 104
robertL 11:12 08:49 78 118
AlanS 11:19 05:42 50 75
chriswords 11:35 10:30 90 136
tiggis 11:41 07:20 62 93
lickert 11:58 06:47 56 84
keriothe_ keriothe 12:45 09:48 76 115
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:52 09:37 74 112
andy 12:57 07:13 55 83
jimpen 13:06 11:44 89 134
SimonAnthony 13:12 08:17 62 93
noidea 13:13 11:14 84 127
p.wild 13:19 12:13 91 137
neilr neilr 13:24 07:49 58 87
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 13:04 96 145
Silva 13:40 08:50 64 96
fshephe 13:54 14:35 104 157
jim42078 13:55 09:13 66 100
Groucho 13:58 13:05 93 140
Askival askival 14:24 11:09 77 116
Ben Staveley 14:26 10:40 73 110
Stavros Stavrolex 14:34 12:18 84 127
Big Mick 15:18 14:57 97 146
Tibthorpe 15:20 08:40 56 84
tunflog 15:26 19:23 125 189
margaretl 15:29 11:15 72 109
Malcj malcj 15:34 07:56 50 75
Sue Sweeper 15:38 11:26 73 110
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:41 10:40 68 103
KenG 16:04 11:43 72 109
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:04 11:43 72 109
Spanna 16:23 18:40 113 171
phthisis 16:38 10:50 65 98
rrricharrrd 17:15 11:21 65 98
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:05 11:06 61 92
LouWeed LouWeed 18:13 12:36 69 104
robinh 18:15 11:04 60 90
Golvellius 18:26 12:15 66 100
fuzz 18:39 14:20 76 115
Squallaby 18:49 10:42 56 84
MK76 18:50 10:54 57 86
RobR RobR 18:52 13:29 71 107
Craven 18:52 15:23 81 122
tapbarker 19:07 17:10 89 134
GMcD 19:19 15:20 79 119
rupe 19:20 11:08 57 86
annelambirth 19:37 13:39 69 104
Looch 20:04 15:54 79 119
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 20:23 16:44 82 124
pterodactyl 21:20 14:32 68 103
gbestanley 21:23 24:06 112 169
Hamish.S 21:24 15:14 71 107
taberdar 21:32 07:34 35 53
barracuda barracuda 22:04 17:12 77 116
mcjwright 22:08 11:58 54 81
benedick 22:09 11:44 52 78
Pootle Pootle 22:10 11:10 50 75
John Arnold 22:29 14:15 63 95
colin2355 22:45 20:40 90 136
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:53 09:15 40 60
Solver52 22:53 16:17 71 107
george.garlick 23:41 13:11 55 83
jaraab 24:07 19:18 80 121
Zander 24:40 17:57 72 109
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:55 14:46 59 89
dec 25:05 18:30 73 110
goblin 25:18 20:04 79 119
Bert Dove 25:31 22:30 88 133
Dzhigit dzhigit71 26:06 18:53 72 109
endafk 26:07 13:56 53 80
Mike Harper Mike Harper 26:33 28:10 106 160
KET 26:33 16:35 62 93
GeorgeTz 26:41 30:28 114 172
fudgiebates 27:24 17:13 62 93
zythum 27:46 15:35 56 84
William M 28:27 16:04 56 84
Manveru 28:30 21:56 76 115
phmfantom phmfantom 28:36 15:00 52 78
Peter Sykes 28:49 19:06 66 100
James P Special_bitter 29:47 15:36 52 78
Mkgnao Mkgnao 30:15 25:05 82 124
nekabue 30:18 26:32 87 131
alwsn8 30:42 20:56 68 103
JoeyC 31:34 13:32 42 63
ulaca ulaca 32:12 20:19 63 95
Semillon 32:21 18:25 56 84
koro kororareka 33:12 26:34 80 121
Tudds 33:33 22:45 67 101
joss henry 34:15 31:13 91 137
SwissWavey 34:17 18:00 52 78
FelicityTT 34:18 13:29 39 59
SlumdogEngineer 34:51 17:27 50 75
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 34:57 20:11 57 86
1234 35:55 15:49 44 66
Glyndwr 36:21 22:43 62 93
Crippens1 36:27 17:02 46 69
maryht 36:34 28:11 77 116
Archie 37:21 21:33 57 86
empty 40:40 31:21 77 116
Curarist Curarist 40:43 23:32 57 86
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:32 22:05 53 80
Maggot 41:59 27:40 65 98
Dandy 43:31 21:40 49 74
Ronnie 44:05 43:15 98 148
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 18:56 41 62
Msimmo 46:03 35:12 76 115
starstruck starstruck_au 47:42 24:20 51 77
FrameShift 47:42 32:29 68 103
kjbr 51:15 43:30 84 127
jackk.larg 55:46 24:51 44 66
kennethk 57:35 42:06 73 110

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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