Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27926

Date 16 March 2021
Number 27926
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 110
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 5
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27926

* 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 03:26 92 83
Jason 06:20 06:14 98 89
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 11:02 162 147
mistigris 07:25 07:58 107 97
Diskus 07:34 12:47 168 152
aphis99 aphis99 07:49 08:13 105 95
Paul Gilbert 08:37 06:19 73 66
Midas 08:50 11:34 130 118
richard 09:05 07:52 86 78
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:32 13:39 143 130
chindit 09:40 10:46 111 100
scrabbler 09:47 12:02 122 110
AlanS 10:22 12:43 122 110
Kinghedger 10:53 10:28 96 87
tiggis 10:58 12:59 118 107
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:04 08:25 76 69
glheard glh 11:07 07:55 71 64
lickert 11:10 09:27 84 76
trux trux20 11:47 19:04 161 146
andy 11:48 13:37 115 104
neilr neilr 11:59 17:35 146 132
Sheapey Sheapey 12:31 13:32 108 98
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:47 16:19 127 115
SimonAnthony 12:48 12:53 100 90
Silva 12:51 16:10 125 113
p.wild 12:54 13:41 106 96
Stavros Stavrolex 13:04 26:16 201 182
aphasic 13:06 14:48 112 101
keriothe_ keriothe 13:09 08:09 61 55
fshephe 13:10 19:37 148 134
Ben Staveley 13:18 15:10 114 103
Secondbass 13:32 20:40 152 138
tilbee 13:47 18:03 130 118
Tibthorpe 13:53 13:01 93 84
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:56 15:15 109 99
Groucho 14:08 17:53 126 114
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:10 14:19 101 91
Malcj malcj 14:13 15:43 110 100
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:19 13:12 92 83
qieduan 14:31 17:05 117 106
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:37 17:18 118 107
cyrillic 15:08 27:00 178 161
tunflog 15:32 19:39 126 114
george.plumbly 15:51 24:03 151 137
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 21:34 135 122
oshinmark 16:03 11:32 71 64
phthisis 16:11 22:42 140 127
Golvellius 16:17 25:07 154 140
JezWoolfrey 16:30 23:00 139 126
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 16:42 21:14 127 115
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:47 15:10 90 81
LJCN 17:08 23:54 139 126
GMcD 17:28 23:27 134 121
Hamish.S 17:50 25:39 143 130
Looch 17:56 14:08 78 70
Achernar 17:58 26:44 148 134
annelambirth 18:01 24:31 136 123
robinh 18:03 25:37 141 128
LouWeed LouWeed 18:05 20:55 115 104
RobR RobR 18:06 26:08 144 130
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:08 18:10 100 90
Craven 18:21 19:17 105 95
pterodactyl 18:46 29:21 156 141
Swanny 18:50 30:03 159 144
gsriordan52 18:58 23:51 125 113
Zabadak (zabadak2) 18:58 26:09 137 124
Terrier 18:59 21:32 113 102
barracuda barracuda 19:27 24:30 125 113
colin2355 19:44 16:58 85 77
alexh 19:45 20:31 103 93
ajcauk1 20:02 23:51 119 108
CentralLine CentralLine 20:14 20:56 103 93
Semillon 20:17 19:58 98 89
Zander 20:23 25:28 124 112
wyn.dil 20:24 19:03 93 84
GeorgeTz 20:29 17:36 85 77
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:55 39:52 190 172
Solver52 20:59 22:21 106 96
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:03 28:58 137 124
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 21:43 24:17 111 100
uvofiz 21:54 31:52 145 131
Jagsfan1971 22:22 26:18 117 106
James P Special_bitter 22:28 20:12 89 80
KET 22:39 21:56 96 87
pc8 22:48 25:24 111 100
john.brassey 22:50 22:52 100 90
goblin 22:59 28:37 124 112
Waterloo 23:04 32:15 139 126
Nangle 23:08 34:09 147 133
alwsn8 23:33 20:39 87 79
Richard Bull 23:43 24:24 102 92
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:04 31:16 129 117
dec 24:07 19:49 82 74
crosswordian 24:11 23:10 95 86
endafk 24:19 27:15 112 101
annbrew 24:21 32:00 131 119
tgipaul 25:27 28:07 110 100
pph22 25:27 29:12 114 103
SwissWavey 26:28 23:02 87 79
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:32 38:18 144 130
stainl665 26:34 28:55 108 98
Corymbia Corymbia 26:36 30:35 114 103
andrewlake 27:18 20:52 76 69
MartianAlien 27:42 23:12 83 75
Tudds 27:44 31:50 114 103
nekabue 27:48 29:24 105 95
ulaca ulaca 29:27 33:32 113 102
Lloyd 30:05 31:41 105 95
boltonwanderer 30:50 41:00 132 120
koro kororareka 31:14 38:04 121 110
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:38 61:00 192 174
Mike Harper Mike Harper 31:52 35:53 112 101
medodd 32:02 38:34 120 109
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 32:21 30:35 94 85
HanS 33:07 46:28 140 127
dosbarth 33:21 55:19 165 150
Cookincats 33:52 34:43 102 92
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:34 41:09 119 108
FrameShift 38:31 47:16 122 110
empty 38:43 46:43 120 109
symbenall2 39:45 47:13 118 107
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 36:35 90 81
Ronnie 42:27 41:17 97 88
MartinP MartinP1 43:16 73:45 170 154
tyrotim tyrotim 45:28 62:02 136 123
andrewmr 46:03 37:12 80 72
marp 47:00 56:25 120 109
jackk.larg 51:46 61:21 118 107
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 43:18 83 75
hilarymatthews58 53:33 90:38 169 153
Bertiethethird 56:12 61:14 108 98
Masha 56:29 57:53 102 92
JGP 81:08 32:20 39 35

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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