Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27691

Date 15 June 2020
Number 27691
Day of week Monday
NITCH 85
Count of ref solvers 49
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27691

* 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 03:49 103 121
edwards.robert1 04:30 03:45 83 97
verlaine Verlaine 07:16 10:07 139 163
tiljo 07:17 06:25 88 103
Nathan Panning 07:21 05:10 70 82
mistigris 07:46 05:05 65 76
aphis99 aphis99 08:31 05:59 70 82
hilarym 09:07 07:18 80 94
asaldanha 09:31 05:18 55 64
Midas 09:36 09:55 103 121
richard 09:51 13:31 137 161
Derek Harrison 10:20 06:26 62 72
AlanS 10:25 09:12 88 103
chindit 10:29 08:35 81 95
Paul Gilbert 10:52 04:06 37 43
jimpen 11:01 10:15 93 109
chriswords 11:02 10:31 95 111
scrabbler 11:13 09:53 88 103
lickert 11:21 08:44 76 89
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:33 10:02 86 101
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:44 09:53 84 98
glheard glh 11:44 12:44 108 127
SimonAnthony 11:58 09:45 81 95
tiggis 12:11 08:32 70 82
keriothe_ keriothe 12:22 10:33 85 100
Kinghedger 12:25 09:54 79 92
neilr neilr 12:28 14:07 113 132
p.wild 12:42 13:05 103 121
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 12:23 95 111
jim42078 12:58 14:10 109 128
trux trux20 13:07 10:33 80 94
Ben Staveley 13:27 15:16 113 132
aphasic 13:33 11:50 87 102
Sheapey Sheapey 13:35 09:17 68 80
robertL 13:38 14:22 105 123
Silva 14:01 11:58 85 100
fshephe 14:01 14:06 100 117
Groucho 14:12 13:24 94 110
Malcj malcj 14:41 14:09 96 112
njnclarke 14:46 14:49 100 117
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:49 13:21 90 105
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 10:24 68 80
Sue Sweeper 15:18 14:46 96 112
grape 15:47 17:12 108 127
tunflog 16:00 18:16 114 134
phthisis 16:20 14:19 87 102
Penfold_61 Penfold 16:21 11:39 71 83
doublecross anguswalker 16:22 13:57 85 100
mikegrocott 16:22 13:12 80 94
David Crooks dcrooks 16:23 13:41 83 97
Crucifer Crucifer 16:28 10:18 62 72
cyrillic 16:32 10:29 63 74
Eddddddd 16:56 14:23 84 98
tapbarker 17:29 15:56 91 107
Golvellius 17:47 18:07 101 118
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:01 14:32 80 94
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:02 18:31 102 120
LouWeed LouWeed 18:10 20:12 111 130
Squallaby 18:12 14:49 81 95
RobR RobR 18:22 16:07 87 102
Craven 18:24 18:01 97 114
GMcD 18:30 24:32 132 155
robinh 18:35 15:54 85 100
Mick in Iraq 18:59 12:45 67 78
LJCN 19:01 13:29 70 82
annelambirth 19:11 21:13 110 129
Zander 19:13 12:16 63 74
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:23 14:10 73 85
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 11:24 57 67
pterodactyl 20:21 21:06 103 121
Hamish.S 20:34 12:29 60 70
barracuda barracuda 20:49 22:23 107 125
Pootle Pootle 21:04 16:12 76 89
benedick 21:05 18:51 89 104
kath 21:24 17:08 80 94
andrewlake 21:24 15:20 71 83
hugh.schofield 21:34 25:51 119 140
Solver52 21:53 24:43 112 131
colin2355 22:05 17:59 81 95
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 35:52 160 188
gbestanley 22:46 25:31 112 131
peterh 23:11 21:47 93 109
Bert Dove 24:07 24:32 101 118
goblin 24:16 25:11 103 121
fudgiebates 24:38 19:40 79 92
dec 24:50 27:57 112 131
pc8 25:11 22:52 90 105
endafk 25:31 25:01 98 115
crosswordian 26:00 20:15 77 90
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:05 27:50 106 124
Manveru 26:46 39:55 149 175
Edprof 27:54 25:26 91 107
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 29:05 22:49 78 91
Semillon 29:09 20:00 68 80
Jagsfan1971 29:29 15:37 52 61
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:33 20:09 68 80
SlumdogEngineer 29:56 26:37 88 103
Waterloo 30:02 19:11 63 74
Peter Sykes 30:17 26:33 87 102
joekobi 30:55 35:00 113 132
alexh 31:19 12:23 39 45
1234 31:29 30:51 97 114
ulaca ulaca 31:35 35:53 113 132
koro kororareka 31:36 25:23 80 94
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:48 42:28 133 156
boltonwanderer 31:50 24:00 75 88
peterjidavidson 32:57 21:22 64 75
SwissWavey 35:48 21:49 60 70
maryht 37:10 32:11 86 101
Curarist Curarist 37:16 24:42 66 77
Nangle 37:48 17:30 46 54
6098mr 40:10 27:53 69 81
empty 40:22 32:52 81 95
wyn.dil 43:04 35:43 82 96
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 36:18 82 96
andrewmr 44:41 36:19 81 95
Ronnie 46:20 43:19 93 109
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 60:39 130 152
FrameShift 49:55 45:31 91 107
Masha 51:27 66:30 129 151
marp 54:39 58:30 107 125
kjbr 55:16 44:22 80 94

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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