Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27595

Date 24 February 2020
Number 27595
Day of week Monday
NITCH 59
Count of ref solvers 56
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27595

* 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 03:20 98 166
edwards.robert1 04:20 04:38 106 179
tiljo 06:39 07:21 110 186
Jason 07:06 04:47 67 113
verlaine Verlaine 07:36 04:15 55 93
aphis99 aphis99 08:44 04:04 46 77
Midas 09:38 06:50 70 118
richard 09:41 08:04 83 140
asaldanha 09:43 04:23 45 76
chindit 10:30 06:56 66 111
Derek Harrison 10:46 07:12 66 111
robertL 11:12 09:50 87 147
AlanS 11:19 05:59 52 88
chriswords 11:35 08:23 72 122
ChuckB 11:40 08:12 70 118
glheard glh 11:55 08:06 67 113
lickert 11:58 05:06 42 71
keriothe_ keriothe 12:45 07:03 55 93
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:52 07:53 61 103
jimpen 13:06 07:32 57 96
noidea 13:13 11:06 83 140
p.wild 13:19 09:56 74 125
neilr neilr 13:24 07:39 57 96
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 05:46 42 71
Silva 13:40 08:07 59 100
Sheapey Sheapey 13:46 08:08 59 100
fshephe 13:54 09:30 68 115
jim42078 13:55 12:10 87 147
Groucho 13:58 11:45 84 142
John Walsh 14:05 13:18 94 159
Stavros Stavrolex 14:34 08:35 58 98
Big Mick 15:18 12:02 78 132
Tibthorpe 15:20 09:30 61 103
margaretl 15:29 15:46 101 171
Malcj malcj 15:34 08:50 56 94
Sue Sweeper 15:38 08:23 53 89
HenryBW 15:56 08:22 52 88
KenG 16:04 09:30 59 100
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:04 09:30 59 100
cyrillic 16:19 12:37 77 130
Spanna 16:23 10:36 64 108
David Crooks dcrooks 17:01 08:42 51 86
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:05 12:04 66 111
LouWeed LouWeed 18:13 15:38 85 144
robinh 18:15 11:42 64 108
Golvellius 18:26 22:15 120 203
fuzz 18:39 13:23 71 120
RobR RobR 18:52 09:08 48 81
Craven 18:52 14:12 75 127
tapbarker 19:07 13:04 68 115
GMcD 19:19 08:35 44 74
rupe 19:20 07:52 40 67
annelambirth 19:37 15:59 81 137
kath 19:55 12:35 63 106
Looch 20:04 13:06 65 110
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 20:23 18:54 92 155
gbestanley 21:23 14:42 68 115
taberdar 21:32 23:10 107 181
benedick 22:09 12:48 57 96
Pootle Pootle 22:10 11:33 52 88
John Arnold 22:29 13:05 58 98
sampson 22:39 19:10 84 142
colin2355 22:45 19:28 85 144
Solver52 22:53 14:12 62 105
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:53 15:39 68 115
george.garlick 23:41 19:38 82 138
flounderbout 23:47 13:40 57 96
brian.mcnamara 23:57 14:32 60 101
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:55 16:26 65 110
dec 25:05 25:34 101 171
goblin 25:18 17:15 68 115
hugh.schofield 25:24 12:10 47 79
Bert Dove 25:31 18:02 70 118
timbo 26:01 15:23 59 100
Dzhigit dzhigit71 26:06 18:32 71 120
endafk 26:07 19:20 74 125
Yatton50 26:39 16:45 62 105
Edprof 27:12 15:35 57 96
fudgiebates 27:24 16:21 59 100
zythum 27:46 18:09 65 110
William M 28:27 14:02 49 83
Manveru 28:30 19:45 69 116
phmfantom phmfantom 28:36 14:19 50 84
Clovis 29:38 15:38 52 88
James P Special_bitter 29:47 10:47 36 61
Mkgnao Mkgnao 30:15 21:55 72 122
nekabue 30:18 17:02 56 94
alwsn8 30:42 16:35 54 91
ulaca ulaca 32:12 21:18 66 111
Tudds 33:33 19:41 58 98
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 33:50 13:17 39 66
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 34:57 14:30 41 69
Paulypops 40:02 22:20 55 93
empty 40:40 22:35 55 93
Curarist Curarist 40:43 18:26 45 76
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:32 26:15 63 106
Gussie 41:40 13:48 33 55
Maggot 41:59 29:58 71 120
Dandy 43:31 33:44 77 130
dannyduncs dannyduncs 43:54 49:22 112 189
Ronnie 44:05 39:55 90 152
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 24:49 54 91
symbenall2 46:34 24:30 52 88
starstruck starstruck_au 47:42 22:57 48 81
FrameShift 47:42 37:59 79 133
andrewmr 51:01 19:21 37 62
jackk.larg 55:46 24:24 43 72
kennethk 57:35 38:09 66 111

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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