Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27860

Date 29 December 2020
Number 27860
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 67
Count of ref solvers 56
Ref solvers excluded with errors 5
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27860

* 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 02:54 78 116
edwards.robert1 04:59 13:02 261 389
Magoo 05:45 04:39 80 119
Jason 06:21 03:46 59 88
Eamon Ryan 06:35 04:49 73 108
Nathan Panning 06:53 04:44 68 101
verlaine Verlaine 06:54 05:02 72 107
aphis99 aphis99 07:50 04:35 58 86
hilarym 08:03 08:41 107 159
Paul Gilbert 08:26 13:36 161 240
Midas 08:51 06:37 74 110
asaldanha 09:00 08:15 91 135
richard 09:18 06:40 71 105
boulemiche 09:31 09:15 97 144
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:45 07:25 76 113
chindit 09:52 10:06 102 152
scrabbler 09:53 08:23 84 125
AlanS 10:03 06:37 65 97
robertL 11:05 10:55 98 146
lickert 11:06 11:46 106 158
tiggis 11:07 11:25 102 152
Kinghedger 11:23 06:47 59 88
glheard glh 11:30 08:10 71 105
ChuckB 11:42 13:47 117 174
jimpen 11:44 12:17 104 155
andy 11:57 13:57 116 173
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:59 05:20 44 65
neilr neilr 12:28 07:49 62 92
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:41 08:05 63 94
miked1961 12:46 09:05 71 105
SimonAnthony 12:51 09:43 75 111
p.wild 12:53 14:00 108 161
Sheapey Sheapey 12:55 10:05 78 116
keriothe_ keriothe 12:59 07:30 57 85
John Walsh 13:14 14:06 106 158
HenryBW 13:17 08:34 64 95
Stavros Stavrolex 13:23 08:37 64 95
aphasic 13:25 12:04 89 132
Silva 13:26 09:34 71 105
fshephe 13:27 09:46 72 107
Secondbass 13:42 11:18 82 122
qieduan 14:05 12:10 86 128
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:06 11:49 83 123
jamesah 14:11 10:42 75 111
Sue Sweeper 14:29 07:16 50 74
Malcj malcj 14:35 13:44 94 140
cyrillic 14:36 09:15 63 94
tilbee 14:43 12:01 81 120
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:43 08:36 58 86
Pavel Tudor 14:53 09:00 60 89
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 09:58 65 97
tunflog 15:32 12:59 83 123
David Crooks dcrooks 15:43 10:41 67 100
grape 15:44 07:02 44 65
phthisis 15:53 09:11 57 85
MK76 16:30 13:54 84 125
d.middleton 16:44 08:52 52 77
rupe 16:48 12:59 77 114
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:50 11:17 67 100
tapbarker 17:00 10:39 62 92
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 17:07 10:20 60 89
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 09:32 54 80
LJCN 17:27 12:13 70 104
GMcD 17:32 16:39 94 140
Dzhigit dzhigit71 17:33 11:29 65 97
robinh 17:52 14:51 83 123
peterh 17:56 14:27 80 119
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:00 14:09 78 116
annelambirth 18:01 14:53 82 122
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 18:04 10:30 58 86
gabrojak 18:18 11:00 60 89
RobR RobR 18:20 12:24 67 100
LouWeed LouWeed 18:29 09:18 50 74
Craven 18:45 17:41 94 140
pterodactyl 18:46 24:07 128 191
Pootle Pootle 18:50 08:03 42 62
THE Engineer 19:01 12:58 68 101
Hamish.S 19:13 12:42 66 98
Swanny 19:16 11:11 58 86
LuckOfLucien 19:16 12:55 67 100
Edprof 19:21 22:46 117 174
gsriordan52 19:34 12:44 65 97
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:47 13:41 69 102
John Arnold 19:51 18:19 92 137
CentralLine CentralLine 20:32 11:24 55 82
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:38 18:47 91 135
colin2355 20:39 16:36 80 119
GeorgeTz 20:40 11:44 56 83
barracuda barracuda 20:41 14:49 71 105
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 20:44 16:54 81 120
ajcauk1 20:45 19:09 92 137
george.garlick 20:48 14:32 69 102
NigeA 21:04 13:30 64 95
rrricharrrd 21:08 14:17 67 100
Zander 21:41 09:36 44 65
Solver52 21:49 14:58 68 101
klamery4 22:02 23:45 107 159
Jagsfan1971 22:18 14:14 63 94
alexh 22:27 12:30 55 82
margaretl 22:27 18:21 81 120
gbestanley 22:41 21:15 93 138
Semillon 22:41 11:24 50 74
brian.mcnamara 22:56 15:14 66 98
goblin 23:00 16:36 72 107
zythum 23:15 17:17 74 110
pc8 23:31 16:59 72 107
alwsn8 23:44 12:45 53 79
BaggieBear 24:04 16:17 67 100
Foozler 24:05 23:09 96 143
Waterloo 24:29 15:53 64 95
Nangle 24:54 13:53 55 82
endafk 25:02 16:26 65 97
john.brassey 26:12 21:31 82 122
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:32 11:49 44 65
UisceTe 26:37 20:24 76 113
Corymbia Corymbia 27:26 21:49 79 117
Manveru 27:37 14:51 53 79
Tudds 27:49 15:09 54 80
SwissWavey 27:52 11:51 42 62
nekabue 29:15 16:07 55 82
Peter Sykes 29:29 28:23 96 143
joss henry 29:35 23:16 78 116
Lloyd 29:56 30:51 103 153
npweston 30:13 17:21 57 85
koro kororareka 31:25 21:35 68 101
boltonwanderer 31:57 33:00 103 153
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:20 33:47 104 155
HanS 33:08 33:55 102 152
Curarist Curarist 33:20 20:32 61 91
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:47 12:52 36 53
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:08 31:14 88 131
JoeyC 36:55 19:19 52 77
maryht 37:20 39:09 104 155
FrameShift 38:36 37:27 97 144
empty 38:51 28:29 73 108
starstruck starstruck_au 40:31 32:55 81 120
MartinP MartinP1 42:55 33:10 77 114
symbenall2 43:33 22:56 52 77
Shushannah 45:16 26:16 58 86
Ronnie 45:48 34:10 74 110
kjbr 46:33 25:20 54 80
Msimmo 48:44 27:32 56 83
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 49:32 24:56 50 74

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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