Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27655

Date 04 May 2020
Number 27655
Day of week Monday
NITCH 91
Count of ref solvers 56
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27655

* 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
Jason 06:43 05:29 81 89
tiljo 07:17 08:03 110 120
verlaine Verlaine 07:28 04:38 62 68
mistigris 07:50 08:55 113 124
aphis99 aphis99 08:27 07:34 89 97
Midas 09:28 09:00 95 104
richard 09:30 10:12 107 117
hilarym 09:33 09:06 95 104
chindit 10:31 11:51 112 123
Paul Gilbert 10:52 06:26 59 64
jimpen 11:01 10:03 91 100
AlanS 11:11 12:58 115 126
chriswords 11:13 15:13 135 148
lickert 11:26 09:29 82 90
scrabbler 11:28 11:37 101 110
tiggis 11:40 14:19 122 134
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:08 09:53 81 89
SimonAnthony 12:09 13:38 112 123
glheard glh 12:11 09:33 78 85
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:13 07:05 57 62
neilr neilr 12:21 11:31 93 102
keriothe_ keriothe 12:36 09:55 78 85
Kinghedger 12:44 09:40 75 82
p.wild 12:45 13:15 103 113
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:59 15:39 120 131
miked1961 13:11 10:23 78 85
Sheapey Sheapey 13:36 09:26 69 75
Ben Staveley 13:41 12:40 92 101
fshephe 13:42 17:43 129 141
Spur58 13:49 12:30 90 98
Groucho 13:49 14:36 105 115
HenryBW 14:36 10:44 73 80
Spanna 15:04 13:11 87 95
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:08 16:01 105 115
Tibthorpe 15:10 21:38 142 156
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 10:26 68 74
njnclarke 15:25 21:48 141 154
Sue Sweeper 15:34 13:13 84 92
doublecross anguswalker 15:36 13:13 84 92
tunflog 16:00 11:08 69 75
phthisis 16:18 20:48 127 139
Penfold_61 Penfold 16:19 18:59 116 127
grape 16:29 15:04 91 100
cyrillic 16:31 13:29 81 89
David Crooks dcrooks 16:38 12:51 77 84
Eddddddd 16:56 23:49 140 153
Crucifer Crucifer 16:57 12:29 73 80
mikegrocott 17:04 21:34 126 138
Squallaby 17:51 16:19 91 100
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 17:52 15:04 84 92
tapbarker 17:58 10:15 57 62
LouWeed LouWeed 18:04 24:17 134 147
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:28 20:21 110 120
RobR RobR 18:36 20:31 110 120
Craven 18:41 20:40 110 120
fuzz 18:42 15:51 84 92
jimwetzler 18:45 20:49 111 121
GMcD 18:58 23:01 121 132
Mick in Iraq 18:59 22:05 116 127
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:23 19:35 101 110
Looch 19:52 18:11 91 100
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 18:28 92 101
pterodactyl 20:13 18:35 91 100
John Arnold 21:06 20:01 94 103
Dzhigit dzhigit71 21:12 19:06 90 98
barracuda barracuda 21:24 20:51 97 106
andrewlake 21:38 21:57 101 110
Solver52 21:57 18:15 83 91
Zabadak (zabadak2) 21:57 19:15 87 95
gbestanley 22:26 25:41 114 125
sampson 22:33 22:45 100 109
colin2355 22:38 21:22 94 103
jaraab 22:49 22:32 98 107
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:50 21:31 94 103
brian.mcnamara 23:41 23:45 100 109
Hamish.S 23:41 25:39 108 118
Bert Dove 24:22 25:31 104 114
goblin 24:31 22:42 92 101
dec 24:55 22:28 90 98
Jagsfan1971 25:59 23:40 91 100
MartianAlien 26:28 28:22 107 117
THE Engineer 26:38 31:37 118 129
crosswordian 26:38 27:42 104 114
zythum 26:46 26:32 99 108
Manveru 27:05 26:23 97 106
klamery4 27:29 22:20 81 89
James P Special_bitter 27:43 21:14 76 83
pc8 27:54 16:29 59 64
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:49 28:48 96 105
Peter Sykes 30:13 21:45 71 78
Semillon 30:13 25:24 84 92
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 30:14 35:16 116 127
ulaca ulaca 30:52 19:24 62 68
joekobi 30:55 29:15 94 103
rosselliot 31:11 33:04 106 116
Tudds 31:42 23:11 73 80
HanS 31:43 47:51 150 164
boltonwanderer 31:50 21:00 65 71
koro kororareka 31:54 36:46 115 126
Crippens1 34:10 50:27 147 161
alexh 34:52 23:54 68 74
Glyndwr 34:59 36:32 104 114
SwissWavey 35:48 21:43 60 65
Curarist Curarist 37:16 102:11 274 301
Paulypops 37:47 40:07 106 116
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 38:57 39:02 100 109
Nangle 39:41 39:48 100 109
empty 40:22 43:55 108 118
Waterloo 41:34 21:31 51 56
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 31:56 72 79
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 40:54 88 96
Shushannah 48:35 45:24 93 102
Masha 48:58 56:23 115 126
FrameShift 49:55 49:48 99 108
marp 54:39 66:40 121 132
kjbr 55:16 57:27 103 113

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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