Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
We see that you have been redirected to our site from the original heroku site. That site will be removed soon, so please update your bookmarks to use the https://times.xwdsnitch.link address.

Times Cryptic Crossword 28030

Date 15 July 2021
Number 28030
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 94
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 15
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28030

* 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 06:05 163 173
mohn mohn2 04:47 03:51 80 85
Nathan Panning 06:13 06:08 98 104
Jason 06:24 04:50 75 79
verlaine Verlaine 06:59 05:39 80 85
edwards.robert1 07:39 07:10 93 98
aphis99 aphis99 07:45 07:02 90 95
Diskus 07:47 05:54 75 79
Steve.P 07:50 07:33 96 102
hilarym 07:57 09:43 122 129
lili 08:06 06:48 83 88
Midas 08:51 07:46 87 92
richard 09:07 09:14 101 107
chindit 09:39 07:21 76 80
AlanS 10:08 12:25 122 129
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:10 08:19 81 86
scrabbler 10:14 10:05 98 104
chriswords 10:35 08:32 80 85
Kinghedger 10:51 10:23 95 101
glheard glh 11:10 10:05 90 95
jimpen 11:35 10:13 88 93
trux trux20 11:40 15:43 134 142
neilr neilr 12:14 09:03 73 77
Sue Sweeper 12:17 14:59 121 128
SimonAnthony 12:37 13:52 109 115
aphasic 12:41 14:53 117 124
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 09:22 73 77
HenryBW 12:42 14:05 110 117
p.wild 12:48 13:42 107 113
fshephe 12:53 10:25 80 85
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:01 17:38 135 143
Sheapey Sheapey 13:02 11:52 91 96
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:04 10:30 80 85
Stavros Stavrolex 13:06 08:46 66 70
jamesah 13:12 14:42 111 118
Silva 13:13 12:49 96 102
Malcj malcj 13:28 18:25 136 144
Heyesey 13:29 10:02 74 78
tilbee 13:32 18:12 134 142
John Walsh 13:36 13:37 100 106
Ben Staveley 13:52 13:15 95 101
Groucho 14:03 17:54 127 135
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:17 12:51 89 94
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 18:02 125 132
qieduan 14:31 13:18 91 96
grape 14:47 14:27 97 103
tunflog 15:18 13:51 90 95
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:46 13:47 87 92
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 18:17 114 121
cyrillic 15:56 19:01 119 126
phthisis 15:56 15:09 95 101
Squallaby 16:06 18:43 116 123
Golvellius 16:10 16:59 105 111
gabrojak 16:28 21:10 128 136
MK76 16:34 26:13 158 168
fuzz 17:09 15:49 92 97
annelambirth 17:12 21:12 123 130
jimwetzler 17:25 15:31 89 94
alexh 17:26 16:57 97 103
LJCN 17:26 14:06 80 85
GMcD 17:41 19:59 113 120
Craven 17:44 18:46 105 111
LouWeed LouWeed 17:48 14:13 79 84
gsriordan52 17:49 13:50 77 81
wyn.dil 18:15 18:40 102 108
Hamish.S 18:21 14:23 78 82
Semillon 18:21 17:21 94 100
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:24 17:41 96 102
Achernar 18:32 19:55 107 113
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:01 18:46 98 104
pterodactyl 19:06 23:27 122 129
andrewlake 19:11 12:08 63 67
John Arnold 19:30 23:31 120 127
barracuda barracuda 20:18 20:46 102 108
kath 20:56 17:11 82 87
Solver52 20:59 16:26 78 82
annbrew 21:53 24:40 112 119
James P Special_bitter 21:55 15:29 70 74
alwsn8 22:09 20:09 90 95
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 30:47 138 146
Jagsfan1971 22:22 04:13 18 19
endafk 22:37 29:48 131 139
pc8 22:41 19:12 84 89
sampson 22:58 25:09 109 115
crosswordian 23:14 21:13 91 96
goblin 23:36 23:03 97 103
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:17 26:00 107 113
Corymbia Corymbia 25:19 20:11 79 84
pph22 25:27 22:38 88 93
Waterloo 25:45 47:56 186 197
UisceTe 26:10 25:57 99 105
1234 26:15 31:05 118 125
Manveru 26:18 35:52 136 144
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:28 35:45 135 143
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:51 25:51 96 102
Tudds 27:28 37:20 135 143
MartianAlien 27:42 24:42 89 94
Pauline Minter 27:52 25:29 91 96
joss henry 29:02 53:02 182 193
npweston 29:57 22:55 76 80
ulaca ulaca 30:42 28:37 93 98
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 30:44 25:21 82 87
boltonwanderer 30:50 33:00 107 113
Lloyd 31:39 21:57 69 73
medodd 32:08 29:07 90 95
HanS 33:07 46:46 141 150
Glyndwr 33:59 40:24 118 125
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:21 63:39 180 191
klamery4 37:09 31:26 84 89
Curarist Curarist 37:14 21:30 57 60
empty 38:43 35:57 92 97
maryht 38:58 44:17 113 120
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 27:11 67 71
MartinP MartinP1 44:31 39:30 88 93
kjbr 51:51 79:12 152 161
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 46:00 88 93
Masha 56:29 67:51 120 127

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back