Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27629

Date 03 April 2020
Number 27629
Day of week Friday
NITCH 101
Count of ref solvers 58
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27629

* 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 04:25 04:27 100 99
Eamon Ryan 06:14 07:20 117 115
Jason 06:47 07:27 109 107
verlaine Verlaine 07:33 11:20 150 148
Contrarian2 contrarian2 08:37 08:52 102 100
aphis99 aphis99 08:38 06:31 75 74
richard 09:26 13:13 140 138
Midas 09:33 12:16 128 126
hilarym 09:45 10:21 106 104
asaldanha 09:47 08:50 90 89
chindit 10:37 10:14 96 95
jimpen 11:15 12:15 108 106
AlanS 11:20 10:22 91 90
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:20 09:20 82 81
chriswords 11:28 11:59 104 102
lickert 11:29 11:32 100 99
scrabbler 12:08 11:48 97 96
glheard glh 12:16 11:27 93 92
SimonAnthony 12:38 13:28 106 104
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 16:56 133 131
neilr neilr 12:53 10:46 83 82
p.wild 13:01 16:48 129 127
robertL 13:03 13:53 106 104
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:06 16:27 125 123
andy 13:20 17:12 129 127
Spur58 13:35 13:07 96 95
Stavros Stavrolex 13:38 11:57 87 86
Sheapey Sheapey 13:50 15:26 111 109
fshephe 13:55 12:05 86 85
John Walsh 13:57 14:35 104 102
Groucho 14:06 17:17 122 120
Silva 14:07 14:12 100 99
aphasic 14:17 14:41 102 100
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:07 18:31 122 120
Malcj malcj 15:10 21:54 144 142
Tibthorpe 15:21 13:13 86 85
HenryBW 15:25 11:52 76 75
njnclarke 15:45 16:54 107 105
Sue Sweeper 15:47 13:30 85 84
tunflog 15:54 15:35 98 97
mikegrocott 16:34 15:59 96 95
cyrillic 16:35 23:20 140 138
phthisis 16:39 15:48 94 93
David Crooks dcrooks 16:53 15:50 93 92
grape 17:31 16:19 93 92
margaretl 17:46 16:31 92 91
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 17:56 17:05 95 94
Squallaby 18:19 14:36 79 78
robinh 18:35 23:29 126 124
oshinmark 18:39 16:05 86 85
tapbarker 18:40 21:40 116 114
fuzz 18:52 20:42 109 107
Craven 18:57 19:54 105 103
RobR RobR 18:58 18:52 99 98
LJCN 19:04 12:59 68 67
Golvellius 19:16 17:18 89 88
rupe 19:19 14:57 77 76
GMcD 19:22 16:34 85 84
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 19:24 17:13 88 87
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:24 20:33 105 103
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 20:54 104 102
Looch 20:02 25:42 128 126
Hamish.S 20:25 25:16 123 121
kath 21:10 20:41 97 96
jlancs228 21:11 22:50 107 105
benedick 21:17 20:08 94 93
barracuda barracuda 21:58 19:39 89 88
gbestanley 22:15 24:48 111 109
Pootle Pootle 22:21 18:03 80 79
Achernar 23:01 15:48 68 67
brian.mcnamara 23:35 25:43 109 107
peterh 23:47 30:20 127 125
dec 24:44 21:37 87 86
Bert Dove 24:53 29:32 118 116
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:21 29:02 114 112
MartianAlien 26:04 31:41 121 119
endafk 26:05 39:17 150 148
fudgiebates 26:22 18:53 71 70
crosswordian 26:26 29:44 112 110
KET 26:54 27:09 100 99
zythum 27:07 25:37 94 93
pc8 27:50 22:07 79 78
Peter Sykes 29:34 25:41 86 85
Mkgnao Mkgnao 30:12 38:11 126 124
nekabue 30:44 25:47 83 82
joekobi 30:55 31:00 100 99
rosselliot 31:09 31:08 99 98
ratterz 31:30 26:33 84 83
HanS 31:35 32:35 103 101
boltonwanderer 31:50 31:00 97 96
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 31:50 31:46 99 98
ulaca ulaca 32:06 43:28 135 133
koro kororareka 32:09 43:17 134 132
bobbb 32:59 25:03 75 74
1234 33:51 29:44 87 86
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 33:58 37:06 109 107
SwissWavey 34:14 35:13 102 100
stainl665 34:41 24:40 71 70
Crippens1 36:09 33:13 91 90
Glyndwr 36:19 25:50 71 70
Gussie 38:14 30:55 80 79
Curarist Curarist 38:29 34:27 89 88
empty 39:20 59:45 151 149
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 40:34 45:04 111 109
Waterloo 43:47 36:37 83 82
Ronnie 44:23 47:57 108 106
starstruck starstruck_au 45:14 66:40 147 145
MartinP MartinP1 45:25 49:28 108 106
Shushannah 48:44 47:07 96 95
jackk.larg 58:27 62:57 107 105

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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