Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27609

Date 11 March 2020
Number 27609
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 113
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27609

* 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 03:34 03:56 110 97
edwards.robert1 04:25 04:10 94 83
Jason 06:56 05:07 73 64
tiljo 07:07 07:21 103 91
verlaine Verlaine 07:36 07:02 92 81
aphis99 aphis99 08:42 07:33 86 76
Midas 09:34 11:54 124 109
hilarym 09:48 16:27 167 147
asaldanha 09:49 07:13 73 64
Paul Gilbert 10:37 08:45 82 72
chindit 10:40 10:10 95 84
AlanS 11:21 12:38 111 98
lickert 11:27 14:05 122 107
scrabbler 11:47 15:05 128 113
glheard glh 12:10 15:18 125 110
robertL 12:26 22:07 177 156
Kinghedger 12:52 15:27 120 106
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:58 20:01 154 136
andy 13:01 14:00 107 94
p.wild 13:08 16:44 127 112
neilr neilr 13:13 15:53 120 106
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:30 12:54 95 84
Spur58 13:35 14:39 107 94
jim42078 13:40 18:32 135 119
fshephe 13:53 14:31 104 92
Stavros Stavrolex 14:04 15:21 109 96
Groucho 14:11 17:02 120 106
Tibthorpe 15:10 15:53 104 92
Malcj malcj 15:17 18:48 123 108
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:20 16:35 108 95
Sue Sweeper 15:22 16:51 109 96
KenG 15:42 13:04 83 73
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 15:42 13:04 83 73
njnclarke 15:45 18:50 119 105
HenryBW 16:04 24:05 149 131
cyrillic 16:24 14:46 90 79
David Crooks dcrooks 16:49 19:50 117 103
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:00 22:14 123 108
LouWeed LouWeed 18:10 18:19 100 88
fuzz 18:52 28:08 149 131
Craven 18:53 24:22 129 114
tapbarker 19:01 24:34 129 114
Golvellius 19:10 17:12 89 78
rupe 19:14 30:28 158 139
GMcD 19:20 23:44 122 107
flounderbout 19:40 28:07 142 125
jlancs228 19:43 45:57 233 206
jimwetzler 20:02 27:53 139 123
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 20:02 23:00 114 100
Looch 20:11 27:08 134 118
Hamish.S 20:25 28:43 140 123
kath 21:10 30:17 143 126
andrewlake 21:39 20:01 92 81
gbestanley 21:40 28:30 131 115
Pootle Pootle 21:49 16:15 74 65
benedick 21:51 24:57 114 100
barracuda barracuda 22:11 30:35 137 121
Solver52 22:41 23:00 101 89
Achernar 23:01 23:40 102 90
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 23:06 37:09 160 141
sampson 23:06 29:31 127 112
peterh 23:12 26:40 114 100
colin2355 23:21 28:55 123 108
Zabadak (zabadak2) 23:22 18:25 78 69
X Solver 475 23:47 36:50 154 136
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:52 40:09 161 142
dec 25:01 32:18 129 114
goblin 25:10 22:41 90 79
MartianAlien 26:04 26:22 101 89
endafk 26:07 25:32 97 85
crosswordian 27:01 25:06 92 81
zythum 27:05 23:03 85 75
William M 27:50 36:03 129 114
Peter Sykes 28:35 39:15 137 121
Edprof 29:53 53:03 177 156
Yatton50 30:07 41:57 139 123
nekabue 30:09 60:33 200 176
ratterz 31:30 35:00 111 98
HanS 31:35 39:20 124 109
Semillon 31:46 30:51 97 85
ulaca ulaca 32:19 43:16 133 117
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 32:37 25:14 77 68
bobbb 32:59 35:32 107 94
klamery4 33:26 20:18 60 53
SwissWavey 34:14 34:54 101 89
FelicityTT 34:23 44:15 128 113
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 34:26 49:57 145 128
Tudds 34:29 53:57 156 138
maryht 34:41 45:06 130 115
1234 34:52 34:11 98 86
Curarist Curarist 38:29 43:15 112 99
SK42 38:38 41:14 106 93
Nangle 41:32 38:25 92 81
symbenall2 44:52 63:19 141 124
starstruck starstruck_au 45:14 70:11 155 137
MartinP MartinP1 45:25 47:50 105 92
vissa 46:48 37:44 80 70
andrewmr 48:05 44:38 92 81
Masha 48:18 57:49 119 105
FrameShift 49:49 50:25 101 89
kjbr 54:27 90:35 166 146
marp 56:39 74:30 131 115
kennethk 57:26 66:12 115 101

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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