Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27773

Date 18 September 2020
Number 27773
Day of week Friday
NITCH 108
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 15
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27773

* 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 04:22 118 109
Diskus 06:34 08:26 128 118
verlaine Verlaine 07:06 08:53 125 115
Nathan Panning 07:12 05:39 78 72
mistigris 07:42 07:45 100 92
aphis99 aphis99 08:10 06:53 84 77
hilarym 08:21 11:34 138 127
asaldanha 09:10 13:44 149 137
Midas 09:27 08:54 94 87
chindit 10:18 11:24 110 101
scrabbler 10:32 11:38 110 101
chriswords 10:37 11:29 108 100
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:18 12:34 111 102
glheard glh 11:25 11:00 96 88
Kinghedger 12:04 11:13 92 85
robertL 12:22 13:20 107 99
p.wild 12:36 15:22 121 112
neilr neilr 12:51 10:43 83 76
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:51 11:29 89 82
trux trux20 12:54 13:53 107 99
HenryBW 13:19 09:45 73 67
Sheapey Sheapey 13:32 13:48 101 93
Spur58 13:58 16:21 117 108
Silva 14:08 13:29 95 87
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:27 18:24 127 117
jamesah 14:42 14:25 98 90
qieduan 14:42 20:01 136 125
Tibthorpe 14:48 19:34 132 122
Malcj malcj 15:09 14:44 97 89
tilbee 15:33 12:39 81 75
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:36 22:11 142 131
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:43 17:41 112 103
doublecross anguswalker 15:46 16:34 105 97
tunflog 15:56 18:59 119 110
David Crooks dcrooks 15:56 18:29 116 107
phthisis 16:24 23:01 140 129
mikegrocott 16:25 16:22 99 91
Golvellius 17:05 19:03 111 102
oshinmark 17:06 21:52 127 117
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 17:10 24:46 144 133
tapbarker 17:16 17:58 104 96
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 13:56 79 73
robinh 18:06 20:10 111 102
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:14 17:26 95 87
LuckOfLucien 18:19 16:50 91 84
RobR RobR 18:33 17:57 96 88
LouWeed LouWeed 18:37 22:01 118 109
LJCN 18:43 16:56 90 83
Craven 18:50 19:55 105 97
gabrojak 18:51 19:01 100 92
JezWoolfrey 18:53 29:22 155 143
rupe 19:39 17:59 91 84
peterh 19:44 23:07 117 108
Looch 19:46 23:59 121 112
pterodactyl 19:47 21:27 108 100
Hamish.S 19:55 49:54 250 231
Pootle Pootle 20:09 28:23 140 129
Terrier 20:24 26:20 129 119
barracuda barracuda 20:44 33:32 161 149
andrewlake 21:05 28:46 136 125
kath 21:36 26:18 121 112
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:38 32:53 152 140
Zander 21:39 30:50 142 131
colin2355 21:44 20:27 94 87
hugh.schofield 22:06 28:30 128 118
Solver52 22:06 22:01 99 91
klamery4 22:22 28:00 125 115
gbestanley 22:38 29:34 130 120
KET 24:06 30:54 128 118
goblin 24:24 21:29 88 81
crosswordian 25:17 27:26 108 100
endafk 25:19 30:33 120 111
dec 25:37 29:36 115 106
alexh 26:04 17:54 68 62
GeorgeTz 26:06 33:53 129 119
MartianAlien 26:12 26:06 99 91
Corymbia Corymbia 26:17 48:19 183 169
joekobi 26:39 22:21 83 76
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:54 33:20 123 113
James P Special_bitter 27:00 24:56 92 85
pph22 27:48 25:57 93 86
Mkgnao Mkgnao 28:24 35:22 124 114
alwsn8 28:53 22:22 77 71
Tudds 29:21 31:29 107 99
phmfantom phmfantom 29:32 46:23 157 145
Peter Sykes 29:39 31:31 106 98
Lloyd 30:42 46:30 151 139
rosselliot 31:32 37:54 120 111
koro kororareka 31:53 51:43 162 150
john.brassey 32:28 29:45 91 84
SwissWavey 32:44 41:16 126 116
ulaca ulaca 33:25 59:25 177 163
Crippens1 34:38 61:36 177 163
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:10 55:27 153 141
Paulypops 36:14 42:56 118 109
Cookincats 37:52 31:10 82 75
wyn.dil 40:11 20:54 52 48
SK42 40:31 43:46 108 100
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 45:15 77:36 171 158
MartinP MartinP1 45:30 65:31 143 132
FrameShift 47:30 25:57 54 50
Masha 49:24 62:25 126 116
kjbr 49:43 93:24 187 173
jackk.larg 52:59 57:57 109 100
marp 53:02 58:26 110 101

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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