Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27686

Date 09 June 2020
Number 27686
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 81
Count of ref solvers 51
Ref solvers excluded with errors 4
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27686

* 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 03:19 89 109
edwards.robert1 04:30 04:04 90 111
Magoo 05:55 04:37 78 96
verlaine Verlaine 07:16 05:14 72 88
tiljo 07:17 06:26 88 108
Nathan Panning 07:21 08:14 112 138
aphis99 aphis99 08:31 07:59 93 114
asaldanha 09:31 11:14 118 145
Midas 09:36 08:44 90 111
richard 09:51 08:12 83 102
AlanS 10:25 08:30 81 100
chindit 10:29 11:16 107 132
Paul Gilbert 10:52 07:53 72 88
jimpen 11:01 11:07 100 123
scrabbler 11:13 09:48 87 107
lickert 11:21 10:23 91 112
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:33 13:28 116 143
glheard glh 11:44 11:39 99 122
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:44 09:17 79 97
SimonAnthony 11:58 20:14 169 208
keriothe_ keriothe 12:22 12:11 98 120
Kinghedger 12:25 12:11 98 120
neilr neilr 12:28 09:28 75 92
p.wild 12:42 12:33 98 120
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 11:40 90 111
Stavros Stavrolex 12:59 17:06 131 161
trux trux20 13:07 11:07 84 103
andy 13:18 11:58 89 109
Ben Staveley 13:27 10:58 81 100
Sheapey Sheapey 13:35 11:21 83 102
robertL 13:38 06:49 50 61
John Walsh 13:43 12:14 89 109
Spur58 13:49 13:06 94 116
fshephe 14:01 10:32 75 92
Silva 14:01 09:23 66 81
HenryBW 14:07 11:59 84 103
Groucho 14:12 13:04 92 113
canismiser 14:41 11:35 78 96
njnclarke 14:46 17:42 119 146
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:49 11:47 79 97
Tibthorpe 15:07 12:40 83 102
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 13:29 88 108
Sue Sweeper 15:18 10:05 65 80
grape 15:47 17:15 109 134
tunflog 16:00 15:39 97 119
phthisis 16:20 17:24 106 130
doublecross anguswalker 16:22 10:00 61 75
David Crooks dcrooks 16:23 15:55 97 119
cyrillic 16:32 16:26 99 122
tapbarker 17:29 17:27 99 122
Golvellius 17:47 10:57 61 75
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:01 15:39 86 106
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:02 14:33 80 98
LouWeed LouWeed 18:10 16:09 88 108
Squallaby 18:12 13:03 71 87
RobR RobR 18:22 17:34 95 117
Craven 18:24 19:37 106 130
GMcD 18:30 24:21 131 161
robinh 18:35 12:16 66 81
jimwetzler 18:45 17:34 93 114
margaretl 18:54 21:11 112 138
LJCN 19:01 13:39 71 87
annelambirth 19:11 12:31 65 80
Zander 19:13 17:05 88 108
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:23 18:05 93 114
Looch 19:40 19:47 100 123
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 12:29 62 76
pterodactyl 20:21 21:21 104 128
John Arnold 20:33 24:58 121 149
Hamish.S 20:34 18:19 89 109
barracuda barracuda 20:49 17:51 85 104
Pootle Pootle 21:04 25:59 123 151
mcjwright 21:07 12:41 60 74
andrewlake 21:24 16:18 76 93
Zabadak (zabadak2) 21:33 17:45 82 101
hugh.schofield 21:34 15:50 73 90
Solver52 21:53 18:58 86 106
colin2355 22:05 22:42 102 125
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 14:20 64 79
sampson 22:19 18:27 82 101
gbestanley 22:46 16:36 72 88
peterh 23:11 17:12 74 91
fudgiebates 24:38 21:58 89 109
endafk 25:31 26:19 103 127
zythum 25:56 16:54 65 80
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:05 17:19 66 81
klamery4 26:22 15:11 57 70
Manveru 26:46 27:38 103 127
Edprof 27:54 15:57 57 70
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 29:05 19:44 67 82
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:33 23:33 79 97
nekabue 30:17 27:47 91 112
Tudds 30:36 17:49 58 71
rosselliot 30:47 38:13 124 153
joekobi 30:55 26:55 87 107
alexh 31:19 25:36 81 100
ulaca ulaca 31:35 29:26 93 114
koro kororareka 31:36 27:29 86 106
HanS 31:43 20:16 63 77
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:48 26:45 84 103
boltonwanderer 31:50 21:00 65 80
JE59 32:38 23:47 72 88
Clovis 33:19 23:02 69 85
FelicityTT 34:00 23:54 70 86
Glyndwr 34:42 33:58 97 119
maryht 37:10 32:40 87 107
Paulypops 37:15 45:11 121 149
Curarist Curarist 37:16 23:49 63 77
Nangle 37:48 32:18 85 104
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 38:45 25:07 64 79
empty 40:22 34:08 84 103
wyn.dil 43:04 36:51 85 104
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 43:27 48:10 110 135
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 25:15 57 70
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 29:44 64 79
paulmcl paulmcl 47:55 36:13 75 92
Shushannah 48:35 48:48 100 123
FrameShift 49:55 29:49 59 72
marp 54:39 43:56 80 98

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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