Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27633

Date 08 April 2020
Number 27633
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 156
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27633

* 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 03:42 03:30 94 60
edwards.robert1 04:30 04:16 94 60
Magoo 05:59 10:03 167 107
Jason 06:47 12:55 190 121
verlaine Verlaine 07:33 12:01 159 101
mistigris 07:52 27:06 344 220
aphis99 aphis99 08:38 15:14 176 112
richard 09:26 16:42 177 113
Midas 09:33 14:54 156 100
asaldanha 09:47 24:51 254 162
Derek Harrison 10:20 06:43 65 41
chindit 10:37 16:51 158 101
jimpen 11:01 15:07 137 87
AlanS 11:20 19:01 167 107
lickert 11:29 20:54 182 116
scrabbler 12:08 15:49 130 83
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 12:24 97 62
p.wild 13:01 14:46 113 72
Kinghedger 13:01 19:20 148 94
robertL 13:03 21:06 161 103
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:06 20:54 159 101
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:21 14:49 110 70
Stavros Stavrolex 13:38 17:01 124 79
Sheapey Sheapey 13:50 17:46 128 82
fshephe 13:55 22:09 159 101
Silva 14:07 29:17 207 132
miked1961 14:31 22:03 151 96
Ben Staveley 14:33 29:38 203 130
canismiser 14:41 47:52 325 208
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:07 21:18 140 89
Malcj malcj 15:10 24:59 164 105
Tibthorpe 15:21 30:05 195 125
njnclarke 16:08 18:19 113 72
doublecross anguswalker 16:13 19:14 118 75
mikegrocott 16:34 20:57 126 80
cyrillic 16:35 28:40 172 110
David Crooks dcrooks 16:53 32:31 192 123
Crucifer Crucifer 16:55 25:26 150 96
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 17:56 29:51 166 106
LouWeed LouWeed 18:14 27:43 152 97
Squallaby 18:19 74:31 406 260
tapbarker 18:40 31:20 167 107
Craven 18:57 31:07 164 105
LJCN 19:04 114:03 598 383
Golvellius 19:16 36:50 191 122
GMcD 19:22 27:35 142 91
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 19:24 29:09 150 96
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:24 19:38 101 64
fuzz 19:38 23:19 118 75
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 41:26 207 132
Looch 20:02 31:22 156 100
jlancs228 21:11 47:18 223 142
benedick 21:17 30:21 142 91
mcjwright 21:27 39:25 183 117
barracuda barracuda 21:58 27:25 124 79
andrewlake 22:05 45:44 207 132
Solver52 22:14 31:17 140 89
Pootle Pootle 22:21 29:03 129 82
colin2355 22:44 41:10 181 116
Zabadak (zabadak2) 22:47 26:16 115 73
sampson 23:06 33:36 145 92
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 23:08 46:50 202 129
Hamish.S 23:41 35:05 148 94
peterh 23:47 40:36 170 108
dec 24:44 38:51 157 100
goblin 24:54 29:58 120 76
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:21 39:04 154 98
MartianAlien 26:28 35:14 133 85
zythum 27:07 43:36 160 102
pc8 27:54 28:12 101 64
phmfantom phmfantom 29:39 44:23 149 95
NAPASAI napasai 30:32 113:14 370 237
Semillon 30:36 32:29 106 67
joekobi 30:55 45:15 146 93
rosselliot 31:09 56:26 181 116
HanS 31:43 40:19 127 81
boltonwanderer 31:50 68:00 213 136
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 31:50 35:55 112 71
koro kororareka 32:09 53:32 166 106
stainl665 32:51 41:35 126 80
Tudds 33:32 50:17 149 95
1234 33:51 42:27 125 80
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 33:58 62:10 183 117
SwissWavey 35:48 46:08 128 82
MrGrumpy 35:53 56:29 157 100
Curarist Curarist 37:16 33:50 90 57
Gussie 38:14 45:00 117 75
SK42 38:37 61:25 159 101
empty 40:22 49:31 122 78
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 40:34 49:42 122 78
Mike Harper Mike Harper 41:17 61:33 149 95
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 77:06 174 111
Masha 44:58 80:28 178 114
vissa 45:04 48:51 108 69
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 59:47 128 82
FrameShift 49:55 81:14 162 103
marp 54:39 72:14 132 84

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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