Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27814

Date 05 November 2020
Number 27814
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 106
Count of ref solvers 57
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27814

* 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 04:28 120 113
edwards.robert1 04:29 07:31 167 157
mohn mohn2 05:06 08:59 176 166
Jason 06:21 09:54 155 146
Diskus 06:30 06:08 94 88
Eamon Ryan 06:39 09:47 147 138
verlaine Verlaine 06:53 10:22 150 141
Nathan Panning 07:06 05:39 79 74
mistigris 07:20 05:23 73 68
aphis99 aphis99 08:05 09:51 121 114
Contrarian2 contrarian2 08:06 08:53 109 102
asaldanha 08:58 13:02 145 136
Midas 09:09 10:03 109 102
richard 09:41 12:01 124 116
AlanS 09:45 19:07 196 184
scrabbler 10:03 13:56 138 130
chriswords 10:15 13:39 133 125
glheard glh 11:19 09:55 87 82
robertL 11:22 12:13 107 100
Kinghedger 11:36 12:29 107 100
andy 11:40 12:06 103 97
SimonAnthony 12:35 14:56 118 111
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:36 14:58 118 111
p.wild 12:37 14:17 113 106
canismiser 12:54 13:29 104 98
Sheapey Sheapey 13:01 11:19 86 81
keriothe_ keriothe 13:03 13:16 101 95
xyster 13:07 14:00 106 100
HenryBW 13:10 12:24 94 88
miked1961 13:18 14:57 112 105
Silva 13:21 13:32 101 95
fshephe 13:49 13:35 98 92
aphasic 13:56 19:44 141 133
Spur58 13:58 13:57 99 93
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:11 18:41 131 123
Sue Sweeper 14:31 16:22 112 105
qieduan 14:33 13:18 91 85
Malcj malcj 14:45 21:30 145 136
cyrillic 14:51 14:58 100 94
doublecross anguswalker 15:04 16:14 107 100
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:07 17:29 115 108
tilbee 15:11 14:22 94 88
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 14:02 92 86
Aloysius 15:16 21:38 141 133
David Crooks dcrooks 15:47 19:52 125 117
Crucifer Crucifer 15:55 16:03 100 94
tunflog 15:56 18:30 116 109
phthisis 16:14 26:59 166 156
Golvellius 16:21 12:49 78 73
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:56 22:02 130 122
tapbarker 17:03 13:02 76 71
fuzz 17:19 22:33 130 122
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 18:26 105 99
GMcD 17:42 21:27 121 114
peterh 17:42 20:02 113 106
robinh 17:49 21:18 119 112
Valance 18:00 20:09 111 104
JezWoolfrey 18:10 17:35 96 90
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 20:54 114 107
LouWeed LouWeed 18:22 21:42 118 111
Squallaby 18:31 18:07 97 91
Hamish.S 18:34 22:33 121 114
Craven 18:38 18:09 97 91
RobR RobR 19:05 22:30 117 110
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:11 24:58 130 122
Looch 19:24 17:23 89 83
Pootle Pootle 19:32 12:52 65 61
andrewlake 19:33 18:39 95 89
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:46 18:44 94 88
colin2355 20:16 22:18 110 103
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:08 25:48 122 115
Paul Bacon 21:39 20:34 94 88
Solver52 21:47 27:52 127 119
Zander 21:48 16:23 75 70
gbestanley 22:03 28:31 129 121
george.garlick 23:04 20:30 88 83
alexh 23:14 14:00 60 56
Semillon 23:26 20:32 87 82
goblin 23:53 22:35 94 88
alwsn8 23:56 96:14 402 379
James P Special_bitter 23:58 29:50 124 116
pc8 24:02 21:23 88 83
KET 24:06 21:00 87 82
Waterloo 24:08 32:11 133 125
endafk 24:57 33:13 133 125
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:25 28:31 112 105
sue.cresswell 25:36 15:50 61 57
pph22 25:41 23:57 93 87
joekobi 26:39 38:43 145 136
annbrew 26:54 23:51 88 83
UisceTe 27:15 18:05 66 62
Manveru 27:18 48:56 179 168
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:35 33:33 121 114
SlumdogEngineer 28:26 23:23 82 77
Tudds 29:21 26:37 90 84
phmfantom phmfantom 29:32 51:54 175 165
nekabue 29:48 27:18 91 85
Lloyd 30:24 30:28 100 94
koro kororareka 31:12 50:25 161 151
stainl665 31:12 32:31 104 98
boltonwanderer 31:57 49:00 153 144
wyn.dil 32:30 22:16 68 64
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:32 53:29 164 154
npweston 33:45 37:12 110 103
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:27 25:37 74 69
JGP 37:42 52:29 139 131
maryht 38:08 36:54 96 90
empty 38:44 35:12 90 84
andrewmr 40:21 41:33 102 96
Msimmo 45:15 71:43 158 149
MartinP MartinP1 45:30 42:01 92 86
FrameShift 47:30 38:36 81 76
marp 53:02 52:21 98 92

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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