Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27683

Date 05 June 2020
Number 27683
Day of week Friday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 52
Ref solvers excluded with errors 7
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27683

* 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 03:52 104 116
edwards.robert1 04:30 04:10 92 103
Magoo 05:55 07:12 121 135
Eamon Ryan 06:15 07:09 114 128
verlaine Verlaine 07:16 08:09 112 125
tiljo 07:17 07:32 103 115
mistigris 07:46 05:18 68 76
aphis99 aphis99 08:31 07:12 84 94
asaldanha 09:31 05:09 54 60
Midas 09:36 08:29 88 98
richard 09:51 09:19 94 105
AlanS 10:25 09:47 93 104
chindit 10:29 10:57 104 116
jimpen 11:01 12:47 116 130
chriswords 11:02 09:52 89 100
scrabbler 11:13 11:50 105 117
lickert 11:21 07:43 67 75
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:33 13:05 113 126
glheard glh 11:44 08:50 75 84
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:44 10:59 93 104
SimonAnthony 11:58 13:14 110 123
Kinghedger 12:25 09:30 76 85
neilr neilr 12:28 08:56 71 79
p.wild 12:42 12:47 100 112
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 11:08 86 96
Stavros Stavrolex 12:59 11:00 84 94
Ben Staveley 13:27 14:36 108 121
aphasic 13:33 17:42 130 146
robertL 13:38 08:18 60 67
Spur58 13:49 12:51 93 104
Silva 14:01 15:34 111 124
HenryBW 14:07 14:35 103 115
Groucho 14:12 14:29 101 113
Malcj malcj 14:41 15:21 104 116
canismiser 14:41 11:50 80 89
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:49 15:41 105 117
Tibthorpe 15:07 11:31 76 85
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 13:01 85 95
Sue Sweeper 15:18 13:01 85 95
grape 15:47 15:24 97 108
tunflog 16:00 16:56 105 117
phthisis 16:20 21:14 130 146
Penfold_61 Penfold 16:21 14:02 85 95
doublecross anguswalker 16:22 14:02 85 95
David Crooks dcrooks 16:23 18:13 111 124
Crucifer Crucifer 16:28 10:56 66 74
oshinmark 16:31 15:24 93 104
cyrillic 16:32 21:19 128 143
Eddddddd 16:56 18:56 111 124
tapbarker 17:29 15:30 88 98
Golvellius 17:47 10:02 56 62
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:01 16:06 89 100
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:02 19:51 110 123
LouWeed LouWeed 18:10 10:55 60 67
Squallaby 18:12 19:13 105 117
fuzz 18:12 18:07 99 111
Craven 18:24 18:50 102 114
GMcD 18:30 18:28 99 111
robinh 18:35 16:07 86 96
margaretl 18:54 25:56 137 153
annelambirth 19:11 24:42 128 143
Looch 19:40 20:39 105 117
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 16:28 82 92
John Arnold 20:33 14:14 69 77
barracuda barracuda 20:49 22:37 108 121
Pootle Pootle 21:04 17:58 85 95
benedick 21:05 18:26 87 97
mcjwright 21:07 18:20 86 96
andrewlake 21:24 16:10 75 84
Zabadak (zabadak2) 21:33 23:07 107 120
Solver52 21:53 22:01 100 112
colin2355 22:05 16:16 73 82
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 20:29 91 102
gbestanley 22:46 29:19 128 143
brian.mcnamara 22:51 23:47 104 116
peterh 23:11 22:14 95 106
Bert Dove 24:07 23:24 97 108
goblin 24:16 32:22 133 149
dec 24:50 29:47 119 133
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:05 19:55 76 85
klamery4 26:22 37:24 141 158
MartianAlien 26:28 29:05 109 122
Manveru 26:46 22:54 85 95
alwsn8 28:36 19:11 67 75
Semillon 29:09 22:22 76 85
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:33 28:55 97 108
SlumdogEngineer 29:56 27:32 91 102
Waterloo 30:02 24:41 82 92
nekabue 30:17 31:46 104 116
Peter Sykes 30:17 20:55 69 77
Tudds 30:36 19:47 64 71
rosselliot 30:47 26:02 84 94
joekobi 30:55 32:41 105 117
koro kororareka 31:36 26:20 83 93
joss henry 31:42 38:00 119 133
HanS 31:43 37:45 119 133
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:48 34:41 109 122
boltonwanderer 31:50 32:00 100 112
Crippens1 33:47 31:18 92 103
Curarist Curarist 37:16 20:56 56 62
Jcal 37:28 28:04 74 83
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 38:45 35:20 91 102
empty 40:22 38:06 94 105
wyn.dil 43:04 54:55 127 142
symbenall2 43:20 30:24 70 78
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 43:27 44:55 103 115
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 50:14 113 126
vissa 45:04 33:51 75 84
paulmcl paulmcl 47:55 46:37 97 108
Shushannah 48:35 40:22 83 93
marp 54:39 61:55 113 126

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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