Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27734

Date 04 August 2020
Number 27734
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 57
Count of ref solvers 59
Ref solvers excluded with errors 9
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27734

* 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 04:21 117 205
mohn mohn2 05:26 03:44 68 119
Diskus 06:40 04:58 74 129
verlaine Verlaine 07:17 03:24 46 80
Nathan Panning 07:20 04:17 58 101
tiljo 07:42 08:42 112 196
mistigris 07:46 03:54 50 87
aphis99 aphis99 08:17 05:24 65 114
hilarym 08:20 04:29 53 92
asaldanha 09:18 06:09 66 115
boulemiche 09:27 07:32 79 138
Midas 09:27 05:27 57 100
AlanS 09:43 07:16 74 129
richard 09:47 06:09 62 108
chindit 10:26 05:18 50 87
chriswords 10:50 08:15 76 133
scrabbler 10:51 07:40 70 122
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:18 06:55 61 107
jimpen 11:22 08:58 78 136
lickert 11:53 06:14 52 91
SimonAnthony 11:54 06:02 50 87
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:02 08:08 67 117
wwalker50 12:03 08:57 74 129
Kinghedger 12:06 08:41 71 124
p.wild 12:37 08:38 68 119
andy 12:41 05:49 45 78
jim42078 12:42 11:08 87 152
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:46 07:33 59 103
keriothe_ keriothe 12:46 10:22 81 142
neilr neilr 12:48 07:22 57 100
canismiser 12:54 09:01 69 121
robertL 12:59 07:04 54 94
John Walsh 13:04 12:56 98 171
Sheapey Sheapey 13:26 08:42 64 112
Ben Staveley 13:36 08:32 62 108
BDDF 13:42 09:20 68 119
fshephe 13:57 14:02 100 175
Silva 14:07 08:20 59 103
xyster 14:10 08:38 60 105
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:29 08:22 57 100
jamesah 14:35 09:40 66 115
qieduan 14:49 07:10 48 84
Tibthorpe 14:55 07:18 48 84
Malcj malcj 15:05 09:36 63 110
tilbee 15:09 08:56 58 101
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:29 08:23 54 94
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:42 09:35 61 107
doublecross anguswalker 15:44 08:20 52 91
tunflog 15:56 12:52 80 140
David Crooks dcrooks 16:00 08:04 50 87
cyrillic 16:04 08:20 51 89
tapbarker 17:21 10:55 62 108
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 10:54 62 108
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 17:30 10:46 61 107
MK76 17:31 11:20 64 112
JezWoolfrey 18:09 12:32 69 121
robinh 18:16 09:34 52 91
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:23 09:32 51 89
GMcD 18:25 11:04 60 105
RobR RobR 18:36 09:39 51 89
LouWeed LouWeed 18:48 09:00 47 82
Craven 18:50 12:13 64 112
LJCN 18:56 08:32 45 78
annelambirth 18:59 13:28 70 122
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:11 15:20 79 138
Zinzan 19:12 15:55 82 143
John Arnold 19:30 10:26 53 92
Looch 19:36 17:24 88 154
Hamish.S 19:43 09:33 48 84
Zabadak (zabadak2) 20:17 15:00 73 128
Pootle Pootle 20:17 09:55 48 84
Zander 20:26 11:31 56 98
Terrier 20:34 09:11 44 77
barracuda barracuda 20:37 14:26 70 122
benedick 20:37 12:57 62 108
margaretl 20:54 19:31 93 163
kath 21:09 18:03 85 149
andrewlake 21:17 14:00 65 114
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:40 12:44 58 101
colin2355 21:56 11:08 50 87
Solver52 22:07 17:50 80 140
gbestanley 22:52 13:44 60 105
Jagsfan1971 23:22 14:53 63 110
brian.mcnamara 23:23 16:24 70 122
klamery4 24:03 19:28 80 140
KET 24:06 20:34 85 149
goblin 24:36 14:14 57 100
pc8 24:50 18:37 74 129
zythum 25:20 16:23 64 112
crosswordian 25:26 12:08 47 82
endafk 25:46 16:38 64 112
dec 25:47 17:26 67 117
Richard Bull 25:54 18:30 71 124
James P Special_bitter 25:57 12:38 48 84
GeorgeTz 26:06 11:28 43 75
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:40 16:44 62 108
annbrew 27:11 21:26 78 136
sue.cresswell 27:21 17:06 62 108
alexh 27:22 14:10 51 89
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:52 21:38 77 135
UisceTe 28:22 22:20 78 136
Mkgnao Mkgnao 28:54 17:08 59 103
NAPASAI napasai 28:58 14:29 50 87
SlumdogEngineer 29:09 20:04 68 119
Tudds 29:21 22:19 76 133
Peter Sykes 29:37 15:01 50 87
nekabue 30:11 16:01 53 92
Lloyd 30:17 14:08 46 80
koro kororareka 31:42 24:24 76 133
boltonwanderer 31:57 16:00 50 87
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:15 28:09 87 152
ulaca ulaca 32:24 18:59 58 101
SwissWavey 32:44 17:52 54 94
Curarist Curarist 32:53 16:26 49 85
HanS 33:01 23:22 70 122
Nangle 33:30 13:31 40 70
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:27 31:23 91 159
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:43 29:31 80 140
Gussie 37:00 20:01 54 94
npweston 39:41 25:49 65 114
starstruck starstruck_au 40:02 34:30 86 150
Cookincats 40:16 19:06 47 82
empty 40:42 31:40 77 135
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 45:15 24:06 53 92
MartinP MartinP1 45:30 20:01 43 75
paulmcl paulmcl 47:05 63:21 134 235
FrameShift 47:30 16:13 34 59
jackk.larg 52:59 34:19 64 112
marp 53:02 37:33 70 122

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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