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 28069

Date 30 August 2021
Number 28069
Day of week Monday
NITCH 112
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 12
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28069

* 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 03:49 08:58 234 208
mohn mohn2 04:48 05:11 107 95
Jason 06:35 11:24 173 154
edwards.robert1 06:55 07:12 104 92
verlaine Verlaine 07:09 08:57 125 111
mistigris 07:32 09:46 129 115
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 07:40 98 87
Diskus 07:49 03:24 43 38
lili 08:20 28:01 336 300
Paul Gilbert 08:47 17:18 196 175
Midas 08:54 10:30 117 104
richard 09:31 12:30 131 116
chindit 09:41 13:57 144 128
boulemiche 09:48 12:59 132 117
scrabbler 10:19 08:12 79 70
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:27 10:15 98 87
chriswords 10:27 10:15 98 87
AlanS 10:39 11:22 106 94
lickert 10:49 17:58 166 148
jimpen 10:52 10:50 99 88
glheard glh 11:09 14:43 131 116
trux trux20 11:49 19:25 164 146
keriothe_ keriothe 12:30 27:52 222 198
fshephe 12:43 05:44 45 40
aphasic 12:46 11:07 87 77
p.wild 12:49 18:16 142 126
SimonAnthony 12:53 16:28 127 113
xyster 13:07 19:56 151 134
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 15:51 120 107
Sheapey Sheapey 13:17 10:14 77 68
Secondbass 13:17 14:00 105 93
Heyesey 13:20 15:13 114 101
Malcj malcj 13:29 14:24 106 94
Silva 13:42 14:32 106 94
jamesah 13:46 18:11 132 117
tilbee 13:49 14:14 103 91
Groucho 14:16 14:28 101 90
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:23 14:57 103 91
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:35 20:35 141 125
David Crooks dcrooks 14:37 16:38 113 100
Tibthorpe 14:43 16:08 109 97
grape 15:04 25:51 171 152
tunflog 15:07 15:58 105 93
gabrojak 15:16 17:52 117 104
phthisis 15:52 18:06 114 101
Looch 16:01 17:39 110 98
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:02 19:16 120 107
johninterred Johninterred 16:03 22:05 137 122
cyrillic 16:29 18:18 111 99
franceslc11 16:55 12:29 73 65
Pootle Pootle 17:09 21:37 126 112
tapbarker 17:18 18:58 109 97
zinzan 17:22 22:36 130 116
mrsbateman 17:27 26:19 150 133
LJCN 17:36 17:45 100 89
LouWeed LouWeed 17:41 24:18 137 122
Craven 17:43 19:19 109 97
RobR RobR 17:52 27:49 155 138
GMcD 17:54 24:08 134 119
gsriordan52 17:55 29:27 164 146
CentralLine CentralLine 18:17 22:21 122 108
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 26:52 146 130
Richard Bull 18:19 06:07 33 29
wyn.dil 18:24 15:39 85 75
robinh 18:36 18:55 101 90
Semillon 18:45 30:32 162 144
Achernar 18:55 16:25 86 76
benedick 19:16 26:12 135 120
andrewlake 19:19 16:50 87 77
Ease This Jam 19:46 13:26 67 59
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:14 39:59 197 175
John Arnold 20:16 28:48 142 126
Zander 20:20 18:32 91 81
Crossiant 20:22 16:29 80 71
Solver52 20:25 24:05 117 104
barracuda barracuda 20:45 29:05 140 125
annbrew 21:24 21:07 98 87
James P Special_bitter 21:59 37:23 170 151
sampson 22:09 22:18 100 89
Jagsfan1971 22:19 30:59 138 123
pc8 22:32 43:00 190 169
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:06 20:30 88 78
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 23:29 33:44 143 127
squark 23:45 27:35 116 103
goblin 23:47 32:25 136 121
Jeeves 24:19 29:28 121 108
zythum 24:28 27:16 111 99
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:46 36:38 147 131
MartianAlien 24:54 22:58 92 82
FrameShift 25:35 24:12 94 83
Corymbia Corymbia 25:36 28:35 111 99
UisceTe 26:16 35:24 134 119
Fidelio 26:31 31:21 118 105
Waterloo 26:37 50:00 187 166
LeyGal 26:48 17:43 66 58
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:25 42:02 153 136
Tudds 27:53 29:58 107 95
nekabue 29:08 30:20 104 92
Pauline Minter 29:15 28:33 97 86
suethepotterer 30:55 35:34 115 102
koro kororareka 31:33 38:14 121 108
boltonwanderer 31:39 18:00 56 50
Curarist Curarist 31:42 40:52 128 114
NAPASAI napasai 31:53 36:50 115 102
ulaca ulaca 32:13 36:48 114 101
klamery4 32:13 29:52 92 82
Cookincats 32:47 41:04 125 111
wimpoldo 32:49 33:22 101 90
dosbarth 33:11 37:29 112 100
Vagans 33:18 31:26 94 83
Mike Harper Mike Harper 33:32 31:01 92 82
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:50 45:29 123 109
6098mr 37:34 30:42 81 72
starstruck starstruck_au 37:48 57:20 151 134
empty 42:43 48:31 113 100
marp 44:07 44:00 99 88
Shushannah 44:31 74:17 166 148
MartinP MartinP1 45:23 73:16 161 143
Ron's mum 54:51 101:49 185 165

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