Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27791

Date 09 October 2020
Number 27791
Day of week Friday
NITCH 154
Count of ref solvers 69
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27791

* 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 03:32 95 61
edwards.robert1 04:29 05:45 128 83
Diskus 06:23 09:56 155 100
Jason 06:27 08:09 126 81
Eamon Ryan 06:37 10:17 155 100
verlaine Verlaine 06:51 12:20 180 116
Nathan Panning 07:14 11:12 154 100
mistigris 07:23 17:50 241 156
aphis99 aphis99 08:00 15:50 197 127
asaldanha 08:49 20:00 226 146
Midas 09:12 14:21 155 100
AlanS 09:38 25:18 262 170
richard 09:46 19:13 196 127
chindit 10:01 19:28 194 125
scrabbler 10:03 13:27 133 86
glheard glh 11:17 18:42 165 107
jimpen 11:22 14:42 129 83
lickert 11:27 13:41 119 77
Kinghedger 11:42 21:28 183 118
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:43 22:54 195 126
andy 12:06 13:38 112 72
SimonAnthony 12:11 20:08 165 107
p.wild 12:33 19:16 153 99
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:35 26:38 211 137
neilr neilr 12:37 19:54 157 101
keriothe_ keriothe 12:55 25:23 196 127
Sheapey Sheapey 13:00 26:46 205 133
HenryBW 13:18 19:24 145 94
xyster 13:32 16:14 119 77
Stavros Stavrolex 13:34 28:11 207 134
fshephe 13:52 14:49 106 68
Spur58 13:58 16:13 116 75
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:17 21:55 153 99
cyrillic 15:07 25:53 171 111
doublecross anguswalker 15:07 38:02 251 162
tilbee 15:17 21:37 141 91
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:32 22:06 142 92
David Crooks dcrooks 15:46 26:36 168 109
mikegrocott 16:04 17:36 109 70
phthisis 16:06 32:36 202 131
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:40 27:55 167 108
tapbarker 16:45 26:06 155 100
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 30:22 174 112
GMcD 17:26 27:20 156 101
fuzz 17:33 26:05 148 96
rupe 17:47 39:10 220 142
robinh 17:48 17:00 95 61
LJCN 17:55 30:20 169 109
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 17:57 30:18 168 109
LouWeed LouWeed 18:12 27:30 151 98
peterh 18:32 22:17 120 77
Craven 18:35 27:44 149 96
Valance 18:43 33:15 177 114
RobR RobR 18:47 25:51 137 88
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:11 25:41 133 86
Looch 19:33 27:03 138 89
Pootle Pootle 19:36 36:10 184 119
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:46 29:19 148 96
andrewlake 19:51 35:27 178 115
barracuda barracuda 20:17 38:42 190 123
margaretl 20:56 23:45 113 73
Zander 21:14 50:03 235 152
Solver52 21:48 22:55 105 68
klamery4 22:11 31:29 141 91
brian.mcnamara 23:13 44:02 189 122
goblin 23:45 34:38 145 94
alwsn8 23:47 39:03 164 106
zythum 23:52 23:55 100 64
crosswordian 24:44 43:18 175 113
Waterloo 24:53 29:16 117 75
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:57 41:54 161 104
MartianAlien 26:12 24:57 95 61
Corymbia Corymbia 26:17 66:38 253 164
pph22 27:08 26:08 96 62
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:30 37:18 135 87
Mkgnao Mkgnao 28:01 34:38 123 79
UisceTe 28:06 36:59 131 85
NAPASAI napasai 29:09 50:59 174 112
nekabue 29:12 66:38 228 148
john.brassey 30:51 28:12 91 59
stainl665 31:12 34:54 111 72
koro kororareka 31:17 54:15 173 112
JoeyC 31:46 80:06 252 163
boltonwanderer 31:57 78:00 244 158
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:41 65:43 201 130
Curarist Curarist 32:53 43:00 130 84
FelicityTT 32:55 32:46 99 64
HanS 33:01 28:29 86 55
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:27 92:09 267 173
npweston 35:35 35:25 99 64
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:39 65:11 182 118
wyn.dil 35:51 26:42 74 48
Cookincats 36:09 61:10 169 109
Mike Harper Mike Harper 36:54 60:03 162 105
dosbarth 38:33 70:35 183 118
maryht 39:11 47:45 121 78
empty 39:29 43:36 110 71
SK42 40:31 41:01 101 65
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 45:15 99:41 220 142
MartinP MartinP1 45:30 78:55 173 112
FrameShift 47:30 27:08 57 37
jackk.larg 52:59 82:55 156 101
marp 53:02 47:55 90 58

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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