Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27868

Date 07 January 2021
Number 27868
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 88
Count of ref solvers 54
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27868

* 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 03:44 101 114
edwards.robert1 04:59 12:48 256 290
mohn mohn2 05:03 04:55 97 110
Magoo 05:45 05:05 88 100
Jason 06:21 06:59 109 123
Eamon Ryan 06:35 05:39 85 96
Diskus 06:40 06:46 101 114
Nathan Panning 06:53 06:39 96 109
verlaine Verlaine 06:54 05:16 76 86
mistigris 07:16 09:46 134 152
aphis99 aphis99 07:50 07:44 98 111
hilarym 08:03 08:35 106 120
Paul Gilbert 08:26 08:11 97 110
mauefw Mauefw 08:36 06:37 76 86
Midas 08:51 07:23 83 94
asaldanha 09:00 15:27 171 194
richard 09:18 07:13 77 87
boulemiche 09:31 10:07 106 120
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:45 08:18 85 96
chindit 09:52 07:09 72 81
scrabbler 09:53 11:12 113 128
lickert 11:06 08:10 73 82
Kinghedger 11:23 11:05 97 110
glheard glh 11:30 10:25 90 102
jimpen 11:44 14:02 119 135
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:59 09:01 75 85
neilr neilr 12:28 13:58 112 127
miked1961 12:46 15:45 123 139
p.wild 12:53 13:07 101 114
Sheapey Sheapey 12:55 11:04 85 96
keriothe_ keriothe 12:59 10:01 77 87
Spur58 13:10 13:15 100 113
John Walsh 13:14 15:57 120 136
HenryBW 13:17 12:55 97 110
Ben Staveley 13:19 13:38 102 115
Stavros Stavrolex 13:23 10:33 78 88
aphasic 13:25 17:28 130 147
Silva 13:26 13:18 99 112
fshephe 13:27 12:39 94 106
Secondbass 13:42 16:40 121 137
canismiser 13:47 08:58 65 73
Groucho 14:01 16:47 119 135
qieduan 14:05 17:03 121 137
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:06 08:09 57 64
jamesah 14:11 16:22 115 130
Spanna 14:17 15:37 109 123
Malcj malcj 14:35 14:03 96 109
cyrillic 14:36 16:46 114 129
tilbee 14:43 12:59 88 100
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:43 14:18 97 110
Pavel Tudor 14:53 15:52 106 120
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 14:44 96 109
njnclarke 15:25 15:51 102 115
David Crooks dcrooks 15:43 13:38 86 97
grape 15:44 11:14 71 80
phthisis 15:53 11:17 71 80
Squallaby 16:22 14:53 90 102
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:50 13:24 79 89
tapbarker 17:00 14:51 87 98
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 13:48 79 89
LJCN 17:27 15:23 88 100
GMcD 17:32 18:24 104 118
Dzhigit dzhigit71 17:33 30:51 175 198
JezWoolfrey 17:41 18:18 103 117
robinh 17:52 20:25 114 129
peterh 17:56 15:11 84 95
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:00 14:25 80 90
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 18:04 15:24 85 96
gabrojak 18:18 13:08 71 80
RobR RobR 18:20 15:58 87 98
LouWeed LouWeed 18:29 18:20 99 112
Looch 18:42 22:11 118 134
Craven 18:45 13:33 72 81
pterodactyl 18:46 20:17 108 122
Pootle Pootle 18:50 15:10 80 90
THE Engineer 19:01 11:36 60 68
Swanny 19:16 18:14 94 106
frecks 19:18 16:33 85 96
gsriordan52 19:34 21:15 108 122
andrewlake 19:35 13:12 67 76
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:47 12:33 63 71
CentralLine CentralLine 20:32 19:23 94 106
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:38 20:18 98 111
barracuda barracuda 20:41 27:02 130 147
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 20:44 21:19 102 115
ajcauk1 20:45 15:27 74 84
george.garlick 20:48 19:56 95 107
NigeA 21:04 16:09 76 86
Solver52 21:49 16:47 76 86
klamery4 22:02 27:26 124 140
alexh 22:27 16:31 73 82
Semillon 22:41 14:43 64 72
gbestanley 22:41 49:04 216 245
goblin 23:00 21:58 95 107
zythum 23:15 33:41 144 163
pc8 23:31 16:32 70 79
alwsn8 23:44 16:43 70 79
JeffHobbs 23:46 37:39 158 179
Richard Bull 24:14 24:34 101 114
Waterloo 24:29 18:49 76 86
crosswordian 24:34 26:11 106 120
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:48 32:34 131 148
endafk 25:02 22:32 90 102
annbrew 25:53 23:25 90 102
SlumdogEngineer 25:55 30:27 117 132
wyn.dil 26:04 16:44 64 72
john.brassey 26:12 21:25 81 92
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:32 31:24 118 134
Fidelio 26:43 22:22 83 94
SwissWavey 27:52 23:16 83 94
nekabue 29:15 22:24 76 86
NAPASAI napasai 29:20 14:44 50 56
Peter Sykes 29:29 22:40 76 86
npweston 30:13 30:28 100 113
rosselliot 30:43 32:12 104 118
ulaca ulaca 31:03 20:07 64 72
koro kororareka 31:25 27:20 87 98
boltonwanderer 31:57 34:00 106 120
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:20 22:41 70 79
HanS 33:08 16:58 51 57
Curarist Curarist 33:20 40:38 121 137
Mike Harper Mike Harper 34:19 28:06 81 92
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:47 40:45 117 132
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:08 30:34 87 98
maryht 37:20 43:31 116 131
dosbarth 37:26 34:57 93 105
FrameShift 38:36 34:46 90 102
empty 38:51 41:30 106 120
starstruck starstruck_au 40:31 39:07 96 109
JGP 42:00 54:32 129 146
symbenall2 43:33 44:07 101 114
paulmcl paulmcl 44:30 44:57 101 114
Ronnie 45:48 53:58 117 132
marp 48:00 39:50 82 93
Msimmo 48:44 29:47 61 69
Bertiethethird 50:34 71:53 142 161

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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