Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 28040

Date 27 July 2021
Number 28040
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 100
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 24
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28040

* 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
Nathan Panning 06:13 06:09 98 98
Jason 06:24 06:19 98 98
verlaine Verlaine 06:59 09:55 142 142
edwards.robert1 07:39 06:32 85 85
aphis99 aphis99 07:45 09:16 119 119
Diskus 07:47 07:07 91 91
lili 08:06 11:47 145 145
Midas 08:51 08:09 92 92
richard 09:07 11:10 122 122
asaldanha 09:08 09:54 108 108
Kinghedger 10:51 09:59 92 92
lickert 10:56 10:25 95 95
glheard glh 11:10 08:48 78 78
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:32 13:57 120 120
trux trux20 11:40 13:18 114 114
robertL 12:00 10:29 87 87
miked1961 12:14 17:47 145 145
neilr neilr 12:14 12:09 99 99
Sue Sweeper 12:17 12:47 104 104
HenryBW 12:42 10:51 85 85
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 15:10 119 119
p.wild 12:48 14:12 110 110
fshephe 12:53 17:55 139 139
xyster 12:54 14:24 111 111
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:01 13:44 105 105
Sheapey Sheapey 13:02 14:01 107 107
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:04 17:28 133 133
Stavros Stavrolex 13:06 12:34 95 95
Heyesey 13:29 11:32 85 85
tilbee 13:32 11:01 81 81
Ben Staveley 13:52 16:59 122 122
Groucho 14:03 15:48 112 112
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:17 12:25 86 86
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 08:57 62 62
qieduan 14:31 14:27 99 99
grape 14:47 15:19 103 103
Crucifer Crucifer 15:13 14:05 92 92
mikegrocott 15:38 16:26 105 105
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 15:54 13:30 84 84
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 17:08 107 107
phthisis 15:56 16:55 106 106
cyrillic 15:56 17:20 108 108
Paul Bacon 15:58 16:50 105 105
tapbarker 16:47 17:42 105 105
fuzz 17:09 25:34 149 149
annelambirth 17:12 19:46 114 114
alexh 17:26 19:37 112 112
LJCN 17:26 17:21 99 99
GMcD 17:41 18:13 103 103
Craven 17:44 20:37 116 116
RobR RobR 17:45 12:18 69 69
wyn.dil 18:15 17:58 98 98
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:24 20:12 109 109
robinh 18:24 20:52 113 113
Achernar 18:32 18:17 98 98
benedick 18:44 25:24 135 135
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:01 19:00 99 99
pterodactyl 19:06 23:17 121 121
andrewlake 19:11 21:18 111 111
Terrier 19:27 26:04 134 134
Richard Bull 19:28 26:41 137 137
Zander 20:01 16:33 82 82
colin2355 20:15 13:05 64 64
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:54 21:13 101 101
Solver52 20:59 20:55 99 99
annbrew 21:53 21:11 96 96
James P Special_bitter 21:55 31:50 145 145
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 27:40 124 124
endafk 22:37 22:00 97 97
pc8 22:41 17:58 79 79
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 22:45 24:15 106 106
sue.cresswell 22:51 17:20 75 75
crosswordian 23:14 24:11 104 104
goblin 23:36 23:13 98 98
zythum 24:15 42:25 174 174
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:17 30:46 126 126
pph22 25:27 37:34 147 147
UisceTe 26:10 26:51 102 102
1234 26:15 29:03 110 110
timbo 26:32 22:45 85 85
stainl665 26:34 30:46 115 115
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:51 25:11 93 93
Tudds 27:28 23:45 86 86
SlumdogEngineer 28:17 43:39 154 154
nekabue 28:50 25:19 87 87
boltonwanderer 30:50 35:00 113 113
koro kororareka 31:22 28:57 92 92
Lloyd 31:39 30:10 95 95
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:08 34:29 107 107
HanS 33:07 32:01 96 96
klamery4 37:09 29:28 79 79
FrameShift 38:31 26:36 69 69
maryht 38:58 42:53 110 110
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 40:17 99 99
MartinP MartinP1 44:31 55:03 123 123
marp 47:00 41:05 87 87
Shushannah 47:08 40:40 86 86
kjbr 51:51 105:43 203 203
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 46:30 89 89

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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