Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27979

Date 17 May 2021
Number 27979
Day of week Monday
NITCH 86
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 7
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27979

* 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 04:08 111 129
mohn mohn2 04:49 04:26 92 106
Nathan Panning 06:24 04:55 76 88
Jason 06:27 06:10 95 110
verlaine Verlaine 06:57 06:40 95 110
mistigris 07:31 06:06 81 94
hilarym 07:43 07:39 99 115
aphis99 aphis99 07:51 07:51 100 116
Diskus 08:02 06:32 81 94
Paul Gilbert 08:51 09:55 112 130
Midas 08:55 09:46 109 126
asaldanha 09:05 06:21 69 80
richard 09:16 06:53 74 86
chindit 09:48 07:17 74 86
scrabbler 10:03 09:25 93 108
lili 10:22 06:24 61 70
AlanS 10:23 11:07 107 124
chriswords 10:26 09:34 91 105
lickert 10:58 10:05 91 105
glheard glh 11:11 09:43 86 100
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:14 09:42 86 100
jimpen 11:35 09:41 83 96
robertL 11:43 16:32 141 163
neilr neilr 12:22 10:01 80 93
Sheapey Sheapey 12:34 12:08 96 111
SimonAnthony 12:38 17:46 140 162
keriothe_ keriothe 12:44 14:48 116 134
HenryBW 12:53 10:23 80 93
aphasic 13:00 11:48 90 104
p.wild 13:01 12:16 94 109
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:04 11:28 87 101
fshephe 13:11 16:21 124 144
Silva 13:13 10:51 82 95
Secondbass 13:21 13:02 97 112
Mekon 13:24 07:11 53 61
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:27 12:12 90 104
jamesah 13:28 16:21 121 140
John Walsh 13:36 14:34 107 124
Sue Sweeper 13:44 08:38 62 72
Ben Staveley 13:46 11:30 83 96
tilbee 13:47 10:13 74 86
canismiser 14:16 21:24 150 174
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 10:05 70 81
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:27 10:17 71 82
Groucho 14:27 14:50 102 118
David Crooks dcrooks 14:45 13:32 91 105
Heyesey 14:47 10:12 68 79
Tibthorpe 14:51 10:44 72 83
qieduan 14:53 14:24 96 111
grape 15:05 12:38 83 96
Crucifer Crucifer 15:13 11:54 78 90
tunflog 15:29 19:21 124 144
cyrillic 15:48 18:42 118 137
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 12:02 75 87
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 16:06 12:20 76 88
njnclarke 16:07 17:57 111 129
tapbarker 16:22 12:41 77 89
Squallaby 16:22 19:20 118 137
Paul Bacon 16:30 17:48 107 124
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:32 13:28 81 94
MK76 16:34 21:32 129 150
Golvellius 16:34 13:37 82 95
Looch 16:52 16:54 100 116
JezWoolfrey 16:54 16:04 95 110
Pootle Pootle 17:09 10:49 63 73
LJCN 17:31 17:43 101 117
CentralLine CentralLine 17:34 12:07 68 79
annelambirth 17:41 14:33 82 95
GMcD 17:53 17:50 99 115
Craven 17:57 17:52 99 115
RobR RobR 18:04 16:03 88 102
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:07 16:42 92 106
LouWeed LouWeed 18:20 14:03 76 88
Semillon 18:23 18:02 98 113
Achernar 18:26 16:53 91 105
robinh 18:27 21:13 114 132
colin2355 18:39 17:22 93 108
alexh 18:41 15:56 85 98
benedick 19:04 25:15 132 153
Swanny 19:17 21:49 113 131
pterodactyl 19:23 20:55 107 124
ajcauk1 19:33 13:49 70 81
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:33 16:35 84 97
andrewlake 19:42 19:50 100 116
wyn.dil 19:47 16:11 81 94
barracuda barracuda 20:11 24:15 120 139
Zander 20:28 24:34 120 139
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:55 20:40 98 113
kath 20:56 20:34 98 113
uvofiz 21:30 25:16 117 136
Ease This Jam 21:53 14:24 65 75
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:04 25:39 116 134
pc8 22:44 15:38 68 79
brian.mcnamara 23:13 23:49 102 118
goblin 23:16 23:51 102 118
endafk 23:21 23:44 101 117
alwsn8 23:34 28:04 119 138
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:19 26:50 110 127
Foozler 24:30 22:12 90 104
pph22 25:27 28:52 113 131
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:34 29:35 111 129
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:43 24:55 93 108
gbestanley 27:20 35:54 131 152
Pauline Minter 27:47 23:57 86 100
nekabue 27:56 31:03 111 129
1234 28:09 25:06 89 103
Tudds 28:13 28:20 100 116
rosselliot 29:06 29:53 102 118
Peter Sykes 29:07 25:34 87 101
npweston 29:57 21:41 72 83
NAPASAI napasai 30:14 18:59 62 72
boltonwanderer 30:50 29:00 94 109
ulaca ulaca 30:53 37:50 122 141
Lloyd 31:33 23:16 73 84
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:33 27:28 87 101
Crippens1 31:37 24:50 78 90
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:36 30:10 92 106
Cookincats 32:51 36:43 111 129
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:07 27:23 80 93
JoeyC 35:53 21:15 59 68
symbenall2 36:18 37:33 103 119
dosbarth 36:41 65:19 178 206
klamery4 36:59 62:27 168 195
Curarist Curarist 37:14 20:09 54 62
maryht 38:08 35:29 93 108
FrameShift 38:31 28:13 73 84
empty 38:43 44:33 115 133
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 39:59 99 115
MartinP MartinP1 44:14 37:00 83 96
tyrotim tyrotim 45:28 50:19 110 127
marp 47:00 49:00 104 120
jackk.larg 51:46 37:19 72 83
kjbr 51:51 45:14 87 101
hilarymatthews58 53:33 56:24 105 122

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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