Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27959

Date 23 April 2021
Number 27959
Day of week Friday
NITCH 162
Count of ref solvers 59
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27959

* 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 04:51 130 80
Jason 06:31 12:56 198 122
verlaine Verlaine 07:01 12:25 176 108
mistigris 07:33 14:12 188 116
edwards.robert1 07:39 07:29 97 59
aphis99 aphis99 07:57 08:40 109 67
Diskus 08:04 12:56 160 98
richard 09:00 19:38 218 134
chindit 09:48 26:50 273 168
scrabbler 10:07 12:38 124 76
lili 10:22 13:23 129 79
Kinghedger 10:57 23:42 216 133
lickert 11:03 17:34 158 97
glheard glh 11:05 21:16 191 117
neilr neilr 12:23 18:02 145 89
SimonAnthony 12:25 24:08 194 119
Sheapey Sheapey 12:38 27:07 214 132
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 18:00 139 85
p.wild 12:58 16:04 123 75
xyster 13:21 22:47 170 104
keriothe_ keriothe 13:23 28:38 213 131
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:51 18:33 133 82
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:17 30:38 214 132
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:24 25:19 175 108
Tibthorpe 14:30 36:22 250 154
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:36 26:14 179 110
David Crooks dcrooks 15:02 23:31 156 96
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 37:19 234 144
Golvellius 16:20 37:21 228 140
fuzz 16:22 67:00 409 252
phthisis 16:33 26:43 161 99
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:54 35:35 210 129
tapbarker 16:58 32:55 194 119
Looch 17:23 17:29 100 61
LJCN 17:33 34:05 194 119
GMcD 17:42 22:27 126 77
RobR RobR 18:06 30:51 170 104
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:12 25:49 141 87
Pootle Pootle 18:13 29:57 164 101
Craven 18:15 27:04 148 91
Achernar 18:20 35:23 193 119
LouWeed LouWeed 18:24 30:45 167 103
robinh 18:26 18:22 99 61
peterh 18:27 19:21 104 64
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:23 38:31 198 122
LuckOfLucien 19:34 56:37 289 178
Semillon 19:43 38:32 195 120
wyn.dil 19:57 26:22 132 81
barracuda barracuda 20:03 30:20 151 93
Zander 20:52 24:20 116 71
Solver52 20:59 19:43 93 57
Ease This Jam 21:04 76:27 362 223
margaretl 21:50 16:46 76 46
pc8 23:14 39:19 169 104
goblin 23:18 32:59 141 87
annbrew 23:52 30:24 127 78
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:07 41:06 170 104
crosswordian 24:18 33:52 139 85
endafk 24:24 26:39 109 67
Waterloo 24:39 42:56 174 107
dec 24:51 33:34 135 83
Corymbia Corymbia 26:35 32:12 121 74
andrewlake 27:34 31:13 113 69
MartianAlien 27:42 29:58 108 66
nekabue 27:52 55:47 200 123
Tudds 28:36 70:08 245 151
Pauline Minter 28:36 35:51 125 77
Peter Sykes 28:42 44:13 154 95
koro kororareka 31:23 57:01 181 111
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:26 75:10 231 142
medodd 32:42 54:35 166 102
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:48 54:41 166 102
HanS 33:07 34:07 103 63
maryht 36:51 48:04 130 80
FrameShift 38:31 38:36 100 61
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 81:22 201 124
NAPASAI napasai 41:53 39:53 95 58
MartinP MartinP1 44:33 78:23 175 108
tyrotim tyrotim 45:28 59:18 130 80
marp 47:00 52:28 111 68
hilarymatthews58 53:33 99:04 184 113

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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