Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
We see that you have been redirected to our site from the original heroku site. That site will be removed soon, so please update your bookmarks to use the https://times.xwdsnitch.link address.

Times Cryptic Crossword 27617

Date 20 March 2020
Number 27617
Day of week Friday
NITCH 171
Count of ref solvers 44
Ref solvers excluded with errors 28
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27617

* 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 04:32 127 74
edwards.robert1 04:25 05:10 116 67
Magoo 06:02 07:57 131 76
tiljo 07:07 07:41 107 62
verlaine Verlaine 07:36 13:58 183 107
mistigris 07:55 18:32 234 136
aphis99 aphis99 08:42 12:16 140 81
Midas 09:34 15:12 158 92
chindit 10:40 25:12 236 138
jimpen 11:15 13:57 124 72
AlanS 11:21 19:42 173 101
lickert 11:27 17:30 152 88
chriswords 11:32 15:16 132 77
glheard glh 12:10 19:03 156 91
robertL 12:26 24:25 196 114
keriothe_ keriothe 12:37 26:09 207 121
SimonAnthony 12:46 15:51 124 72
Kinghedger 12:52 27:40 215 125
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:58 24:56 192 112
neilr neilr 13:13 17:09 129 75
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:30 28:51 213 124
Sheapey Sheapey 13:51 43:20 312 182
Silva 14:03 29:30 209 122
Malcj malcj 15:17 25:31 166 97
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:20 27:58 182 106
tunflog 15:54 18:10 114 66
HenryBW 16:04 20:29 127 74
cyrillic 16:24 29:02 177 103
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:00 31:18 173 101
robinh 18:23 28:04 152 88
fuzz 18:52 20:33 108 63
GMcD 19:20 30:32 157 91
jlancs228 19:43 74:38 378 221
Dixiegrand 19:58 03:37 18 10
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 42:20 211 123
Looch 20:11 23:36 116 67
Hamish.S 20:25 64:12 314 183
andrewlake 21:39 37:10 171 100
mcjwright 21:47 31:50 146 85
Solver52 22:41 21:58 96 56
george.garlick 23:00 23:33 102 59
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 23:06 30:36 132 77
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:52 56:55 228 133
goblin 25:10 35:39 141 82
GeorgeTz 26:23 38:58 147 85
crosswordian 27:01 43:21 160 93
William M 27:50 64:29 231 135
Agsurfer 28:02 47:09 168 98
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:58 37:37 125 73
Semillon 31:46 94:01 295 172
koro kororareka 32:13 59:01 183 107
SwissWavey 34:14 71:42 209 122
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 34:26 52:56 153 89
Tudds 34:29 63:00 182 106
MrGrumpy 35:46 46:28 129 75
Archie 36:15 75:12 207 121
Curarist Curarist 38:29 44:55 116 67
SK42 38:38 48:38 125 73
Mike Harper Mike Harper 38:59 66:00 169 98
empty 39:20 43:54 111 64
MartinP MartinP1 45:25 104:44 230 134
FrameShift 49:49 57:44 115 67
jackk.larg 58:27 98:19 168 98

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back