Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
We see that you have been redirected to our site from the original heroku site. That site will be removed soon, so please update your bookmarks to use the https://times.xwdsnitch.link address.

Times Cryptic Crossword 27693

Date 17 June 2020
Number 27693
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 123
Count of ref solvers 56
Ref solvers excluded with errors 4
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27693

* 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 04:02 109 88
edwards.robert1 04:30 04:05 90 73
verlaine Verlaine 07:16 14:30 199 161
Nathan Panning 07:21 12:06 164 133
mistigris 07:46 09:10 118 95
aphis99 aphis99 08:31 09:33 112 91
hilarym 09:07 09:59 109 88
asaldanha 09:31 12:03 126 102
Midas 09:36 09:38 100 81
richard 09:51 11:55 120 97
AlanS 10:25 16:50 161 130
chindit 10:29 17:44 169 137
jimpen 11:01 14:12 128 104
chriswords 11:02 15:21 139 113
scrabbler 11:13 15:23 137 111
lickert 11:21 18:31 163 132
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:33 14:00 121 98
glheard glh 11:44 16:10 137 111
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:44 14:48 126 102
keriothe_ keriothe 12:22 21:09 171 139
Kinghedger 12:25 19:37 157 127
neilr neilr 12:28 18:52 151 122
p.wild 12:42 14:49 116 94
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 16:11 125 101
Stavros Stavrolex 12:59 12:45 98 79
trux trux20 13:07 14:41 111 90
aphasic 13:33 19:35 144 117
Sheapey Sheapey 13:35 19:26 143 116
robertL 13:38 13:04 95 77
Spur58 13:49 17:09 124 100
fshephe 14:01 14:59 106 86
Silva 14:01 21:17 151 122
Groucho 14:12 18:24 129 104
njnclarke 14:46 14:48 100 81
Tibthorpe 15:07 22:41 150 121
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 17:44 116 94
Sue Sweeper 15:18 24:32 160 130
Penfold_61 Penfold 16:21 24:56 152 123
doublecross anguswalker 16:22 30:35 186 151
David Crooks dcrooks 16:23 16:49 102 82
Crucifer Crucifer 16:28 16:35 100 81
Eddddddd 16:56 22:09 130 105
tapbarker 17:29 19:56 114 92
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:01 22:31 124 100
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:02 20:29 113 91
LouWeed LouWeed 18:10 24:23 134 108
fuzz 18:12 20:34 113 91
RobR RobR 18:22 32:32 177 143
Craven 18:24 21:32 117 95
GMcD 18:30 18:14 98 79
robinh 18:35 19:33 105 85
jimwetzler 18:45 26:13 139 113
margaretl 18:54 31:17 165 134
LJCN 19:01 20:15 106 86
annelambirth 19:11 22:03 114 92
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:23 20:43 106 86
Looch 19:40 26:31 134 108
rupe 19:54 26:32 133 108
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 20:55 104 84
Hamish.S 20:34 29:56 145 117
barracuda barracuda 20:49 31:55 153 124
Pootle Pootle 21:04 23:50 113 91
benedick 21:05 22:41 107 86
mcjwright 21:07 27:48 131 106
andrewlake 21:24 26:51 125 101
Zabadak (zabadak2) 21:33 22:46 105 85
hugh.schofield 21:34 23:17 107 86
Solver52 21:53 28:07 128 104
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 36:24 163 132
sampson 22:19 26:07 117 95
gbestanley 22:46 22:18 97 78
peterh 23:11 16:52 72 58
Bert Dove 24:07 24:17 100 81
goblin 24:16 41:06 169 137
dec 24:50 34:30 138 112
pc8 25:11 36:16 144 117
KET 25:45 19:37 76 61
crosswordian 26:00 32:07 123 100
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:05 33:27 128 104
Manveru 26:46 38:19 143 116
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 29:05 35:39 122 99
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:33 36:30 123 100
SlumdogEngineer 29:56 49:58 166 134
Waterloo 30:02 33:05 110 89
nekabue 30:17 40:26 133 108
Tudds 30:36 53:39 175 142
joekobi 30:55 45:00 145 117
NAPASAI napasai 31:04 44:46 144 117
ulaca ulaca 31:35 46:01 145 117
koro kororareka 31:36 44:25 140 113
joss henry 31:42 44:46 141 114
HanS 31:43 41:39 131 106
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:48 38:24 120 97
boltonwanderer 31:50 58:00 182 147
JE59 32:38 27:19 83 67
Crippens1 33:47 68:47 203 165
Glyndwr 34:42 57:17 165 134
SwissWavey 35:48 27:41 77 62
maryht 37:10 47:03 126 102
Curarist Curarist 37:16 43:51 117 95
Gussie 37:43 34:35 91 73
Nangle 37:48 35:55 95 77
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 38:45 41:06 106 86
empty 40:22 59:22 147 119
wyn.dil 43:04 60:54 141 114
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 72:05 163 132
andrewmr 44:41 49:43 111 90
Ronnie 46:20 55:45 120 97
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 44:24 95 77
Shushannah 48:35 67:28 138 112
rick&max 48:52 63:39 130 105
FrameShift 49:55 50:10 100 81
Masha 51:27 66:14 128 104
kjbr 55:16 56:25 102 82
jackk.larg 57:12 55:33 97 78

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back