Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27914

Date 02 March 2021
Number 27914
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 79
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27914

* 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 03:28 93 117
mohn mohn2 04:58 03:40 73 92
Jason 06:20 06:24 101 127
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 06:02 88 111
mistigris 07:25 07:37 102 129
Diskus 07:34 05:55 78 98
edwards.robert1 07:39 06:55 90 113
aphis99 aphis99 07:49 08:42 111 140
hilarym 07:49 08:53 113 143
Paul Gilbert 08:37 05:54 68 86
Midas 08:50 09:56 112 141
asaldanha 08:58 06:58 77 97
richard 09:05 09:53 108 136
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:32 10:15 107 135
chindit 09:40 07:35 78 98
scrabbler 09:47 11:11 114 144
chriswords 10:14 09:43 94 118
AlanS 10:22 08:11 78 98
Kinghedger 10:53 11:42 107 135
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:04 07:38 68 86
glheard glh 11:07 10:54 98 124
lickert 11:10 09:50 88 111
robertL 11:21 10:40 93 117
jimpen 11:35 13:00 112 141
trux trux20 11:47 11:07 94 118
neilr neilr 11:59 11:26 95 120
Sheapey Sheapey 12:31 07:44 61 77
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:47 12:01 94 118
SimonAnthony 12:48 08:44 68 86
HenryBW 12:49 11:00 85 107
Silva 12:51 10:44 83 105
p.wild 12:54 12:32 97 122
Stavros Stavrolex 13:04 10:36 81 102
aphasic 13:06 10:52 82 103
keriothe_ keriothe 13:09 06:24 48 60
fshephe 13:10 14:24 109 137
Ben Staveley 13:18 09:27 71 89
jamesah 13:28 13:22 99 125
Secondbass 13:32 11:12 82 103
John Walsh 13:36 13:10 96 121
tilbee 13:47 11:30 83 105
Tibthorpe 13:53 12:34 90 113
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:56 10:28 75 94
Sue Sweeper 14:01 10:33 75 94
Groucho 14:08 13:31 95 120
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:10 10:11 71 89
Malcj malcj 14:13 14:03 98 124
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:19 09:25 65 82
qieduan 14:31 13:33 93 117
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:37 15:06 103 130
cyrillic 15:08 13:08 86 108
David Crooks dcrooks 15:13 13:12 86 108
grape 15:29 09:35 61 77
tunflog 15:32 13:20 85 107
george.plumbly 15:51 13:12 83 105
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 14:40 92 116
njnclarke 16:06 12:22 76 96
Golvellius 16:17 10:52 66 83
JezWoolfrey 16:30 12:21 74 93
Squallaby 16:36 11:04 66 83
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:47 10:45 64 81
tapbarker 16:59 11:44 69 87
LJCN 17:08 11:15 65 82
GMcD 17:28 10:47 61 77
Hamish.S 17:50 15:04 84 106
Pootle Pootle 17:53 12:08 67 84
Looch 17:56 10:48 60 75
Achernar 17:58 17:41 98 124
annelambirth 18:01 18:37 103 130
robinh 18:03 18:11 100 126
LouWeed LouWeed 18:05 12:01 66 83
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:08 16:47 92 116
Craven 18:21 15:32 84 106
Edprof 18:41 14:33 77 97
pterodactyl 18:46 15:21 81 102
Swanny 18:50 11:51 62 78
gsriordan52 18:58 14:32 76 96
Zabadak (zabadak2) 18:58 12:41 66 83
LuckOfLucien 19:27 12:40 65 82
barracuda barracuda 19:27 14:14 73 92
colin2355 19:44 13:41 69 87
kath 20:01 23:14 116 146
CentralLine CentralLine 20:14 12:55 63 79
Zander 20:23 17:14 84 106
GeorgeTz 20:29 15:09 73 92
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:55 27:42 132 167
Solver52 20:59 13:24 63 79
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:03 14:50 70 88
Jagsfan1971 22:22 12:16 54 68
James P Special_bitter 22:28 10:46 47 59
pc8 22:48 17:44 77 97
john.brassey 22:50 17:17 75 94
Waterloo 23:04 20:43 89 112
brian.mcnamara 23:13 16:21 70 88
alwsn8 23:33 13:33 57 72
Richard Bull 23:43 23:20 98 124
zythum 24:04 20:13 84 106
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:04 17:26 72 91
endafk 24:19 18:33 76 96
Foozler 24:30 15:49 64 81
gbestanley 25:15 18:48 74 93
Fidelio 26:01 23:49 91 115
UisceTe 26:15 16:35 63 79
klamery4 26:24 18:14 69 87
SwissWavey 26:28 15:37 59 74
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:32 14:36 55 69
NAPASAI napasai 26:32 19:36 73 92
Corymbia Corymbia 26:36 28:41 107 135
andrewlake 27:18 11:56 43 54
Tudds 27:44 21:53 78 98
Manveru 27:45 27:12 98 124
nekabue 27:48 19:48 71 89
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:58 12:48 45 56
Peter Sykes 29:06 19:22 66 83
ulaca ulaca 29:27 26:33 90 113
rosselliot 29:39 35:01 118 149
Lloyd 30:05 19:45 65 82
Menelaus 30:45 27:47 90 113
boltonwanderer 30:50 19:00 61 77
koro kororareka 31:14 25:23 81 102
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:38 18:48 59 74
HanS 33:07 26:56 81 102
JoeyC 34:01 22:03 64 81
FrameShift 38:31 12:53 33 41
empty 38:43 36:00 92 116
joss henry 41:22 20:28 49 62
Ronnie 42:27 29:12 68 86
MartinP MartinP1 43:16 29:05 67 84
tyrotim tyrotim 45:28 35:07 77 97
marp 47:00 36:04 76 96
paulmcl paulmcl 49:38 27:48 56 70
jackk.larg 51:46 34:29 66 83
kjbr 51:51 29:01 55 69
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 32:27 62 78
hilarymatthews58 53:33 33:09 61 77
JGP 81:08 108:09 133 168

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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