Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 27991

Date 31 May 2021
Number 27991
Day of week Monday
NITCH 118
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27991

* 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 03:52 104 88
Nathan Panning 06:18 06:59 110 93
Jason 06:24 06:55 108 91
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 09:30 140 118
mistigris 07:31 07:48 103 87
edwards.robert1 07:39 06:41 87 73
hilarym 07:44 13:05 169 143
aphis99 aphis99 07:46 11:50 152 128
Diskus 07:53 06:25 81 68
lili 07:59 08:15 103 87
Paul Gilbert 08:25 18:03 214 181
Midas 08:52 09:43 109 92
richard 09:10 11:33 126 106
chindit 09:45 14:40 150 127
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:03 14:46 146 123
scrabbler 10:03 05:17 52 44
chriswords 10:21 13:28 130 110
Kinghedger 10:29 10:46 102 86
glheard glh 11:13 10:52 96 81
miked1961 11:47 15:45 133 112
trux trux20 12:00 08:55 74 62
Sheapey Sheapey 12:38 24:56 197 166
xyster 12:40 26:54 212 179
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 13:27 105 88
HenryBW 12:44 21:41 170 144
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:44 19:35 153 129
p.wild 12:44 13:15 104 88
Silva 13:14 20:43 156 132
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:40 17:25 127 107
Heyesey 13:48 16:16 117 99
Ben Staveley 13:50 14:59 108 91
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:20 22:07 154 130
canismiser 14:35 19:43 135 114
qieduan 14:42 25:05 170 144
Tibthorpe 14:50 17:57 121 102
cyrillic 15:38 19:49 126 106
phthisis 15:39 21:59 140 118
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:40 28:58 184 155
Golvellius 15:42 18:44 119 100
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 13:40 85 72
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:03 18:45 116 98
Looch 16:15 19:02 117 99
tapbarker 16:17 18:28 113 95
Squallaby 16:22 13:04 79 66
CentralLine CentralLine 17:08 17:30 102 86
Pootle Pootle 17:08 27:46 162 137
Craven 17:26 22:56 131 111
RobR RobR 17:30 20:43 118 100
GMcD 17:36 26:36 151 127
Semillon 17:43 24:06 136 115
LouWeed LouWeed 17:50 21:20 119 100
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:01 22:56 127 107
alexh 18:02 17:47 98 83
robinh 18:06 23:33 130 110
wyn.dil 18:35 19:44 106 89
Achernar 18:43 17:51 95 80
benedick 18:45 24:51 132 111
andrewlake 18:52 15:23 81 68
Swanny 18:56 23:11 122 103
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:18 19:35 101 85
Zander 19:44 23:50 120 101
barracuda barracuda 20:09 24:26 121 102
Richard Bull 20:22 23:51 117 99
george.garlick 20:58 29:26 140 118
Solver52 20:59 20:54 99 83
Ease This Jam 21:43 23:35 108 91
James P Special_bitter 21:43 23:36 108 91
alwsn8 21:50 19:49 90 76
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:00 32:41 148 125
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 22:28 22:10 98 83
pc8 22:30 29:03 129 109
goblin 23:20 34:21 147 124
crosswordian 23:42 34:03 143 121
Nangle 23:51 32:41 137 116
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:59 28:20 118 100
zythum 24:00 31:16 130 110
Waterloo 25:23 31:31 124 105
timbo 25:24 39:02 153 129
pph22 25:27 23:02 90 76
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 25:41 23:01 89 75
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:23 36:49 139 117
MartianAlien 27:42 23:52 86 72
NAPASAI napasai 27:46 23:06 83 70
nekabue 27:52 35:06 125 105
Tudds 27:58 29:56 107 90
FelicityTT 29:11 40:01 137 116
npweston 29:57 34:53 116 98
rosselliot 29:58 41:27 138 116
ulaca ulaca 30:22 45:44 150 127
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 30:32 22:23 73 61
koro kororareka 30:35 43:43 142 120
boltonwanderer 30:50 64:00 207 175
Lloyd 30:52 26:23 85 72
Mike Harper Mike Harper 31:51 52:43 165 139
Cookincats 32:00 43:32 136 115
HanS 33:07 48:54 147 124
Glyndwr 33:59 50:35 148 125
dosbarth 36:41 48:47 132 111
Curarist Curarist 37:14 23:07 62 52
FrameShift 38:31 26:40 69 58
maryht 38:40 56:41 146 123
empty 38:43 55:44 143 121
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 54:33 135 114
MartinP MartinP1 43:23 59:54 138 116
marp 47:00 49:57 106 89
Shushannah 47:08 59:21 125 105
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 63:59 123 104
JGP 90:44 45:22 50 42

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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