Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27857

Date 25 December 2020
Number 27857
Day of week Friday
NITCH 103
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 2
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27857

* 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 03:41 04:34 123 119
mohn mohn2 05:10 03:41 71 68
Magoo 05:45 05:03 87 84
Jason 06:27 05:01 77 74
Diskus 06:33 08:46 133 129
verlaine Verlaine 06:59 07:33 108 104
Nathan Panning 07:00 06:32 93 90
aphis99 aphis99 07:58 07:28 93 90
Paul Gilbert 08:08 09:19 114 110
Midas 08:53 08:56 100 97
asaldanha 08:55 12:53 144 139
richard 09:19 09:14 99 96
AlanS 09:55 14:55 150 145
chindit 09:57 09:17 93 90
scrabbler 10:03 07:39 76 73
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:09 15:48 155 150
robertL 10:56 11:35 105 101
lickert 11:09 13:34 121 117
glheard glh 11:23 09:39 84 81
andy 11:56 03:54 32 31
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:34 21:38 172 166
neilr neilr 12:43 16:27 129 125
SimonAnthony 12:43 30:28 239 232
Sheapey Sheapey 12:45 14:11 111 107
miked1961 12:46 11:17 88 85
p.wild 12:52 14:36 113 109
canismiser 13:07 23:50 181 175
keriothe_ keriothe 13:09 13:41 104 100
Silva 13:11 22:55 173 167
HenryBW 13:16 15:08 114 110
Stavros Stavrolex 13:24 10:45 80 77
Tibthorpe 13:28 18:27 137 133
fshephe 13:39 18:33 135 131
aphasic 13:49 13:32 97 94
qieduan 14:04 16:39 118 114
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:12 16:51 118 114
cyrillic 14:40 15:35 106 102
tilbee 14:55 09:20 62 60
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:56 13:19 89 86
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 17:03 112 108
Aloysius 15:31 23:56 154 149
David Crooks dcrooks 15:40 15:23 98 95
phthisis 16:15 18:44 115 111
Squallaby 16:26 33:12 202 196
d.middleton 16:44 24:06 144 139
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:54 16:11 95 92
tapbarker 16:55 18:25 108 104
gabrojak 17:00 12:33 73 70
fuzz 17:10 20:04 116 112
LJCN 17:21 13:56 80 77
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 16:34 95 92
JezWoolfrey 17:40 32:07 181 175
jimwetzler 17:43 22:04 124 120
GMcD 17:44 13:28 75 72
robinh 17:53 22:32 126 122
peterh 17:54 20:07 112 108
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 18:04 16:54 93 90
LouWeed LouWeed 18:19 33:29 182 176
pterodactyl 18:35 16:30 88 85
Hamish.S 18:38 21:37 116 112
Pootle Pootle 18:52 19:42 104 100
Craven 18:56 20:15 106 102
benedick 19:05 20:14 106 102
Looch 19:06 15:17 80 77
John Arnold 19:26 31:39 162 157
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:35 19:34 99 96
andrewlake 19:38 24:39 125 121
jaraab 19:42 18:46 95 92
barracuda barracuda 20:37 13:48 66 64
colin2355 20:42 32:29 156 151
ajcauk1 20:45 38:29 185 179
gsriordan52 20:57 22:03 105 101
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:04 22:22 106 102
Solver52 21:49 16:43 76 73
Zander 21:53 18:44 85 82
sampson 22:49 25:12 110 106
zythum 22:55 36:45 160 155
brian.mcnamara 23:23 34:20 146 141
goblin 23:27 24:59 106 102
BaggieBear 23:55 34:42 145 140
Richard Bull 24:14 23:06 95 92
James P Special_bitter 24:29 25:40 104 100
Waterloo 24:32 30:21 123 119
crosswordian 24:43 32:37 131 127
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:49 22:46 91 88
endafk 25:00 14:00 56 54
pph22 25:01 32:53 131 127
Nangle 25:24 32:08 126 122
annbrew 26:31 22:43 85 82
Fidelio 26:43 32:00 119 115
UisceTe 27:00 28:40 106 102
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:01 31:13 115 111
stainl665 27:04 33:05 122 118
MartianAlien 27:38 26:03 94 91
Corymbia Corymbia 27:44 24:34 88 85
Tudds 27:49 24:58 89 86
SwissWavey 27:52 22:41 81 78
Pauline Minter 29:05 24:35 84 81
Lloyd 29:28 27:04 91 88
nekabue 29:31 34:23 116 112
wyn.dil 29:48 19:10 64 62
NAPASAI napasai 29:59 23:54 79 76
Gussie 30:28 23:46 78 75
koro kororareka 31:28 30:24 96 93
ulaca ulaca 31:57 38:44 121 117
HanS 33:08 39:48 120 116
Curarist Curarist 33:20 38:31 115 111
FrameShift 36:36 34:12 93 90
JoeyC 36:55 24:03 65 63
empty 38:36 44:35 115 111
Maggot 41:38 51:01 122 118
andrewmr 42:13 50:01 118 114
Shushannah 45:16 58:58 130 126
marp 48:00 50:04 104 100
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 49:32 38:26 77 74
jackk.larg 50:19 51:38 102 99
Masha 53:45 60:01 111 107

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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