Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27878

Date 19 January 2021
Number 27878
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 106
Count of ref solvers 55
Ref solvers excluded with errors 17
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27878

* 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 03:43 03:37 97 91
Jason 06:37 07:07 107 100
Eamon Ryan 06:46 06:14 92 86
Diskus 06:53 07:31 109 102
verlaine Verlaine 07:02 06:37 94 88
edwards.robert1 07:39 16:04 210 198
Steve.P 07:50 07:17 92 86
aphis99 aphis99 07:57 08:05 101 95
Midas 08:56 12:10 136 128
asaldanha 08:56 10:19 115 108
Paul Gilbert 09:09 10:36 115 108
richard 09:26 09:21 99 93
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:54 11:02 111 104
chindit 09:56 11:09 112 105
scrabbler 09:57 12:44 127 119
AlanS 10:11 09:26 92 86
tiggis 10:58 13:50 126 118
glheard glh 11:20 09:40 85 80
jimpen 11:35 12:11 105 99
andy 11:44 12:13 104 98
miked1961 12:14 14:05 115 108
trux trux20 12:20 15:24 124 116
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:24 12:03 97 91
neilr neilr 12:33 21:31 171 161
SimonAnthony 12:44 15:07 118 111
p.wild 12:53 15:07 117 110
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:57 21:31 166 156
Sheapey Sheapey 13:00 10:24 80 75
HenryBW 13:18 11:27 86 81
fshephe 13:33 13:57 102 96
Ben Staveley 13:38 14:15 104 98
Stavros Stavrolex 13:52 19:36 141 133
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:13 18:56 133 125
canismiser 14:16 08:44 61 57
qieduan 14:19 16:47 117 110
jamesah 14:20 12:17 85 80
Malcj malcj 14:42 17:53 121 114
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:47 17:05 115 108
tilbee 14:49 16:08 108 101
cyrillic 14:53 22:24 150 141
tunflog 15:30 18:38 120 113
Crucifer Crucifer 15:31 17:44 114 107
george.plumbly 15:51 27:56 176 166
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 25:53 162 152
David Crooks dcrooks 15:57 13:47 86 81
oshinmark 16:03 20:08 125 117
grape 16:09 13:14 81 76
njnclarke 16:19 28:07 172 162
phthisis 16:23 16:57 103 97
Squallaby 16:26 17:32 106 100
gabrojak 16:28 25:20 153 144
d.middleton 16:29 18:26 111 104
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 17:13 21:42 126 118
tapbarker 17:27 14:03 80 75
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 17:32 24:58 142 133
fuzz 17:39 16:33 93 87
GMcD 17:45 15:50 89 83
LJCN 17:46 27:05 152 143
Ease This Jam 17:47 15:22 86 81
peterh 17:49 18:07 101 95
annelambirth 18:01 25:12 139 131
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:09 22:29 123 116
robinh 18:11 19:55 109 102
JezWoolfrey 18:13 13:05 71 66
Looch 18:40 24:22 130 122
LouWeed LouWeed 18:46 16:57 90 84
Craven 18:54 19:48 104 98
pterodactyl 19:00 23:14 122 115
Achernar 19:05 21:04 110 103
LuckOfLucien 19:16 26:09 135 127
gsriordan52 19:30 21:13 108 101
Terrier 19:30 21:02 107 100
Philip_ 19:39 23:25 119 112
John Arnold 19:42 26:39 135 127
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:58 25:16 126 118
barracuda barracuda 20:25 21:06 103 97
NigeA 20:34 20:37 100 94
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 20:48 20:06 96 90
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:54 23:27 112 105
Solver52 20:59 19:34 93 87
george.garlick 21:04 34:24 163 153
Zander 21:42 24:30 112 105
uvofiz 21:54 30:36 139 131
sue.cresswell 22:51 24:00 105 99
gbestanley 22:53 39:39 173 163
sampson 22:57 28:05 122 115
CentralLine CentralLine 22:57 18:05 78 73
goblin 23:06 37:18 161 151
klamery4 23:11 24:11 104 98
James P Special_bitter 23:22 34:16 146 137
brian.mcnamara 23:45 25:08 105 99
pc8 24:07 32:12 133 125
crosswordian 24:42 33:43 136 128
alwsn8 25:11 31:19 124 116
tgipaul 25:27 22:24 88 83
endafk 25:34 27:49 108 101
Fidelio 26:01 22:57 88 83
SwissWavey 26:28 16:12 61 57
wyn.dil 26:52 22:02 82 77
MartianAlien 27:42 24:04 86 81
Corymbia Corymbia 27:47 26:54 96 90
andrewlake 27:48 18:37 66 62
1234 28:09 29:14 103 97
Lloyd 28:13 81:01 287 270
Tudds 28:58 42:12 145 136
FelicityTT 29:11 31:16 107 100
nekabue 29:27 40:04 136 128
ulaca ulaca 30:44 46:55 152 143
Menelaus 30:45 35:29 115 108
boltonwanderer 30:50 43:00 139 131
koro kororareka 31:13 33:57 108 101
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:11 33:20 103 97
Sandleheath 33:58 32:10 94 88
JoeyC 34:01 45:47 134 126
Mike Harper Mike Harper 35:06 31:43 90 84
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:48 55:05 153 144
dosbarth 36:40 31:55 87 82
maryht 36:59 47:50 129 121
Curarist Curarist 37:14 44:40 119 112
Pendrov 38:24 47:53 124 116
FrameShift 38:31 13:01 33 31
empty 38:43 41:30 107 100
Ronnie 43:16 40:13 92 86
andrewmr 46:03 43:09 93 87
jackk.larg 51:46 52:40 101 95
kjbr 51:51 66:49 128 120
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 63:43 122 115
Masha 56:29 64:21 113 106

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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