Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27644

Date 21 April 2020
Number 27644
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 82
Count of ref solvers 54
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27644

* 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 03:26 92 112
edwards.robert1 04:30 04:10 92 112
Magoo 05:59 06:24 106 129
Eamon Ryan 06:14 05:39 90 109
Jason 06:47 05:38 83 101
tiljo 07:17 08:00 109 132
verlaine Verlaine 07:33 04:59 66 80
mistigris 07:52 07:10 91 110
aphis99 aphis99 08:38 07:26 86 104
richard 09:26 08:38 91 110
Midas 09:33 07:31 78 95
hilarym 09:45 10:30 107 130
boulemiche 09:56 09:28 95 115
chindit 10:37 09:26 88 107
Paul Gilbert 10:52 07:16 66 80
jimpen 11:01 11:17 102 124
AlanS 11:20 08:49 77 93
chriswords 11:28 09:46 85 103
lickert 11:29 07:06 61 74
scrabbler 12:08 10:54 89 108
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:08 10:22 85 103
glheard glh 12:16 09:37 78 95
SimonAnthony 12:38 09:26 74 90
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 09:03 71 86
neilr neilr 12:53 12:26 96 117
p.wild 13:01 12:35 96 117
Kinghedger 13:01 13:44 105 128
robertL 13:03 11:53 91 110
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:06 13:45 104 126
andy 13:20 10:45 80 97
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:21 09:11 68 82
Stavros Stavrolex 13:38 08:09 59 71
jim42078 13:38 11:15 82 100
John Walsh 13:43 15:28 112 136
Spur58 13:49 14:27 104 126
Sheapey Sheapey 13:50 12:43 91 110
fshephe 13:55 10:46 77 93
Groucho 14:06 15:50 112 136
Silva 14:07 13:43 97 118
miked1961 14:31 07:40 52 63
Ben Staveley 14:33 12:43 87 106
canismiser 14:41 08:40 59 71
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:07 13:25 88 107
Malcj malcj 15:10 13:59 92 112
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 14:08 92 112
HenryBW 15:25 10:53 70 85
Spanna 15:28 19:58 129 157
Sue Sweeper 15:47 14:16 90 109
tunflog 16:00 17:48 111 135
mikegrocott 16:34 14:28 87 106
cyrillic 16:35 14:13 85 103
phthisis 16:39 16:14 97 118
David Crooks dcrooks 16:53 17:56 106 129
Crucifer Crucifer 16:55 13:26 79 96
grape 17:31 15:34 88 107
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 17:56 17:55 99 120
LouWeed LouWeed 18:14 14:52 81 98
Squallaby 18:19 13:26 73 89
margaretl 18:26 21:17 115 140
robinh 18:35 16:15 87 106
tapbarker 18:40 17:14 92 112
Craven 18:57 17:24 91 110
RobR RobR 18:58 20:49 109 132
Golvellius 19:16 17:17 89 108
GMcD 19:22 13:04 67 81
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 19:24 12:10 62 75
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:24 19:37 101 123
LuckOfLucien 19:29 23:52 122 148
annelambirth 19:32 25:39 131 159
fuzz 19:38 16:23 83 101
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 14:06 70 85
kath 21:50 19:08 87 106
barracuda barracuda 21:58 37:09 169 206
John Arnold 22:07 14:05 63 76
Pootle Pootle 22:21 11:50 52 63
Zabadak (zabadak2) 22:47 17:04 74 90
sampson 23:06 22:55 99 120
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 23:08 15:14 65 79
hugh.schofield 23:16 26:04 112 136
Hamish.S 23:41 23:49 100 121
peterh 23:47 16:44 70 85
dec 24:44 27:31 111 135
Bert Dove 24:53 26:16 105 128
goblin 24:54 30:42 123 150
endafk 26:05 19:13 73 89
crosswordian 26:26 24:26 92 112
zythum 27:07 23:49 87 106
Manveru 27:23 30:10 110 134
Jagsfan1971 27:37 18:54 68 82
Peter Sykes 29:34 32:28 109 132
phmfantom phmfantom 29:39 39:07 131 159
Mkgnao Mkgnao 30:12 29:53 98 119
NAPASAI napasai 30:32 16:40 54 65
HanS 31:43 36:33 115 140
boltonwanderer 31:50 26:00 81 98
koro kororareka 32:09 24:54 77 93
SlumdogEngineer 33:02 47:20 143 174
Tudds 33:32 27:47 82 100
joss henry 33:58 48:33 142 173
SwissWavey 35:48 29:41 82 100
Glyndwr 36:19 36:32 100 121
Curarist Curarist 37:16 30:01 80 97
Paulypops 38:46 44:26 114 139
empty 40:22 44:16 109 132
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 40:34 26:41 65 79
Nangle 41:13 27:51 67 81
Dalai Farmer 43:07 86:46 201 245
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 43:27 31:32 72 87
Waterloo 43:47 24:48 56 68
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 36:54 83 101
Ronnie 44:23 50:05 112 136
Masha 44:58 64:56 144 175
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 37:30 80 97
paulmcl paulmcl 47:55 33:14 69 84
Shushannah 48:35 45:21 93 113
FrameShift 49:55 51:49 103 125
marp 54:39 50:44 92 112

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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