Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27891

Date 03 February 2021
Number 27891
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 15
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27891

* 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 03:31 94 105
Magoo 05:29 06:27 117 131
Jason 06:28 05:16 81 91
Eamon Ryan 06:36 07:26 112 125
Nathan Panning 06:45 05:46 85 95
Diskus 06:49 07:14 106 119
verlaine Verlaine 06:49 05:38 82 92
edwards.robert1 07:39 09:04 118 132
aphis99 aphis99 07:56 07:47 98 110
hilarym 08:03 09:18 115 129
Midas 08:54 08:21 93 104
asaldanha 09:04 07:53 86 96
richard 09:10 09:30 103 115
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:48 09:16 94 105
chindit 09:49 09:29 96 107
scrabbler 09:51 08:14 83 93
AlanS 10:12 10:21 101 113
chriswords 10:14 11:00 107 120
tiggis 10:58 10:29 95 106
lickert 11:10 08:55 79 88
Kinghedger 11:19 10:01 88 98
glheard glh 11:19 11:25 100 112
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:25 10:01 87 97
robertL 11:26 10:58 95 106
jimpen 11:35 12:12 105 117
neilr neilr 12:14 10:55 89 100
Sheapey Sheapey 12:37 10:20 81 91
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:54 09:54 76 85
p.wild 12:56 13:00 100 112
HenryBW 13:03 09:50 75 84
SimonAnthony 13:11 12:12 92 103
Spur58 13:15 10:56 82 92
Ben Staveley 13:20 10:24 78 87
keriothe_ keriothe 13:24 11:42 87 97
fshephe 13:25 13:13 98 110
Stavros Stavrolex 13:33 09:27 69 77
John Walsh 13:36 15:11 111 124
aphasic 13:37 13:07 96 107
jamesah 13:40 11:35 84 94
Secondbass 13:53 14:12 102 114
canismiser 14:16 14:05 98 110
Groucho 14:19 15:17 106 119
qieduan 14:21 13:25 93 104
taberdar 14:26 04:46 33 37
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:29 16:07 111 124
tilbee 14:32 09:36 66 74
Malcj malcj 14:32 16:27 113 126
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:37 16:59 116 130
cyrillic 14:49 15:18 103 115
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 15:12 12:12 80 89
mikegrocott 15:28 14:04 90 101
David Crooks dcrooks 15:28 14:30 93 104
grape 15:37 17:39 113 126
gabrojak 16:06 14:44 91 102
phthisis 16:07 14:48 91 102
Squallaby 16:17 12:14 75 84
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 17:04 14:01 82 92
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 17:12 15:15 88 98
tapbarker 17:13 13:33 78 87
LJCN 17:28 16:57 97 108
GMcD 17:41 13:17 75 84
JezWoolfrey 17:43 17:50 100 112
annelambirth 18:04 17:49 98 110
Paul Bacon 18:04 18:04 100 112
peterh 18:06 17:00 93 104
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:15 16:33 90 101
Hamish.S 18:17 20:44 113 126
robinh 18:18 16:04 87 97
RobR RobR 18:28 15:49 85 95
Looch 18:34 15:19 82 92
Craven 18:42 16:55 90 101
benedick 19:08 14:34 76 85
jaraab 19:08 26:25 138 155
Terrier 19:08 16:19 85 95
Swanny 19:13 27:11 141 158
LuckOfLucien 19:16 18:10 94 105
John Arnold 19:18 21:42 112 125
gsriordan52 19:26 18:36 95 106
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:30 16:07 82 92
barracuda barracuda 20:02 19:29 97 108
alexh 20:47 18:38 89 100
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:54 13:39 65 73
colin2355 20:55 19:01 90 101
CentralLine CentralLine 20:56 12:47 61 68
Solver52 20:59 17:05 81 91
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 21:15 19:27 91 102
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:17 18:47 88 98
wyn.dil 22:06 19:25 87 97
goblin 23:01 24:16 105 117
James P Special_bitter 23:28 20:43 88 98
pc8 23:33 17:53 75 84
zythum 23:48 28:15 118 132
alwsn8 24:19 15:48 64 71
endafk 24:20 15:46 64 71
klamery4 25:02 38:50 155 174
pph22 25:27 20:56 82 92
SwissWavey 26:28 17:39 66 74
stainl665 26:34 32:49 123 138
SlumdogEngineer 26:38 41:11 154 173
andrewlake 27:44 15:05 54 60
Tudds 28:26 18:40 65 73
nekabue 28:32 26:13 91 102
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 29:10 24:36 84 94
rosselliot 30:44 41:09 133 149
boltonwanderer 30:50 26:00 84 94
koro kororareka 31:19 34:37 110 123
medodd 32:18 26:51 83 93
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:40 37:31 114 128
HanS 33:07 30:29 92 103
Sandleheath 33:58 23:46 69 77
JoeyC 34:01 40:52 120 134
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:01 19:14 56 62
Cookincats 34:31 26:58 78 87
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:50 33:05 94 105
dosbarth 35:49 30:08 84 94
Crippens1 35:56 38:00 105 117
Pendrov 38:24 29:17 76 85
empty 38:43 40:42 105 117
MartinP MartinP1 43:10 29:54 69 77
Ronnie 43:16 42:05 97 108
joss henry 43:33 23:08 53 59
marp 47:00 41:22 88 98
Bertiethethird 56:12 59:03 105 117

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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