Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27923

Date 12 March 2021
Number 27923
Day of week Friday
NITCH 147
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 23
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27923

* 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 03:59 107 72
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 16:53 248 168
mistigris 07:25 13:07 176 119
Diskus 07:34 17:39 233 158
edwards.robert1 07:39 10:31 137 93
Midas 08:50 12:04 136 92
chindit 09:40 21:16 220 149
scrabbler 09:47 11:01 112 76
AlanS 10:22 21:02 202 137
Kinghedger 10:53 16:43 153 104
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:04 25:58 234 159
glheard glh 11:07 15:28 139 94
lickert 11:10 13:52 124 84
jimpen 11:35 12:14 105 71
trux trux20 11:47 13:44 116 78
Sheapey Sheapey 12:31 17:16 137 93
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:47 13:37 106 72
SimonAnthony 12:48 16:25 128 87
p.wild 12:54 18:22 142 96
keriothe_ keriothe 13:09 28:50 219 148
fshephe 13:10 17:20 131 89
Spur58 13:14 15:59 120 81
Secondbass 13:32 35:59 265 180
Tibthorpe 13:53 21:37 155 105
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:56 19:06 137 93
Sue Sweeper 14:01 22:36 161 109
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:10 16:48 118 80
Malcj malcj 14:13 15:26 108 73
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:19 20:21 142 96
David Crooks dcrooks 15:13 21:13 139 94
george.plumbly 15:51 29:10 184 125
oshinmark 16:03 30:35 190 129
phthisis 16:11 27:50 171 116
fuzz 16:28 21:17 129 87
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 16:42 34:50 208 141
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:47 30:06 179 121
tapbarker 16:59 28:24 167 113
LJCN 17:08 34:45 202 137
Achernar 17:58 24:39 137 93
robinh 18:03 22:09 122 82
LouWeed LouWeed 18:05 20:36 113 76
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:08 24:08 133 90
Craven 18:21 23:27 127 86
Edprof 18:41 24:52 133 90
benedick 18:48 24:50 132 89
Swanny 18:50 32:06 170 115
Zabadak (zabadak2) 18:58 23:11 122 82
barracuda barracuda 19:27 27:47 142 96
CentralLine CentralLine 20:14 35:06 173 117
Zander 20:23 30:51 151 102
GeorgeTz 20:29 29:55 146 99
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:55 37:29 179 121
Solver52 20:59 21:38 103 70
pc8 22:48 56:48 249 169
cath23 22:50 38:15 167 113
john.brassey 22:50 05:40 24 16
sue.cresswell 22:51 27:00 118 80
goblin 22:59 39:53 173 117
Richard Bull 23:43 13:28 56 38
dec 24:07 29:19 121 82
crosswordian 24:11 30:55 127 86
annbrew 24:21 32:36 133 90
Gussie 25:18 54:02 213 144
pph22 25:27 47:59 188 127
Fidelio 26:01 24:40 94 63
klamery4 26:24 35:51 135 91
NAPASAI napasai 26:32 55:21 208 141
stainl665 26:34 48:24 182 123
Corymbia Corymbia 26:36 28:34 107 72
Tudds 27:44 55:52 201 136
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:58 53:23 190 129
1234 28:09 58:59 209 142
Pauline Minter 28:14 23:20 82 55
Peter Sykes 29:06 38:16 131 89
boltonwanderer 30:50 23:00 74 50
koro kororareka 31:14 51:08 163 110
Mike Harper Mike Harper 31:52 55:39 174 118
medodd 32:02 44:12 137 93
HanS 33:07 38:50 117 79
dosbarth 33:21 44:18 132 89
Cookincats 33:52 56:54 168 114
JoeyC 34:01 57:46 169 114
maryht 36:07 61:24 170 115
Curarist Curarist 37:14 47:30 127 86
empty 38:43 44:36 115 78
MartinP MartinP1 43:16 83:18 192 130
tyrotim tyrotim 45:28 57:39 126 85
andrewmr 46:03 88:48 192 130
marp 47:00 52:56 112 76
jackk.larg 51:46 60:55 117 79
hilarymatthews58 53:33 53:07 99 67
Masha 56:29 48:28 85 57

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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