Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 28089

Date 22 September 2021
Number 28089
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 131
Count of ref solvers 54
Ref solvers excluded with errors 19
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28089

* 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 04:27 116 88
Jason 06:35 09:06 138 105
edwards.robert1 06:55 07:05 102 77
mistigris 07:32 07:38 101 77
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 13:32 173 132
Diskus 07:49 09:29 121 92
Midas 08:54 10:26 117 89
richard 09:31 15:28 162 123
chindit 09:41 17:11 177 135
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:27 14:07 135 103
chriswords 10:27 12:27 119 90
lickert 10:49 18:29 170 129
Kinghedger 10:50 11:23 105 80
jimpen 10:52 11:05 101 77
glheard glh 11:09 15:22 137 104
trux trux20 11:49 12:59 109 83
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:04 20:21 168 128
keriothe_ keriothe 12:30 15:57 127 96
p.wild 12:49 12:20 96 73
HenryBW 12:55 13:41 105 80
Stavros Stavrolex 13:07 23:40 180 137
xyster 13:07 13:59 106 80
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 21:02 159 121
Sheapey Sheapey 13:17 18:09 136 103
Heyesey 13:20 12:25 93 70
TB22 13:31 31:05 229 174
Silva 13:42 19:48 144 109
tilbee 13:49 19:16 139 106
Ben Staveley 14:08 18:31 131 100
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:23 24:10 168 128
David Crooks dcrooks 14:37 15:27 105 80
Tibthorpe 14:43 24:12 164 125
gabrojak 15:16 20:52 136 103
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:39 26:45 170 129
Looch 16:01 03:45 23 17
johninterred Johninterred 16:03 36:05 224 170
oshinmark 16:16 15:51 97 74
tapbarker 17:18 16:52 97 74
mrsbateman 17:27 19:05 109 83
LouWeed LouWeed 17:41 26:32 150 114
RobR RobR 17:52 25:36 143 109
GMcD 17:54 25:20 141 107
gsriordan52 17:55 26:45 149 113
CentralLine CentralLine 18:17 57:15 313 238
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 25:36 139 106
wyn.dil 18:24 17:12 93 70
robinh 18:36 22:45 122 93
Semillon 18:45 35:27 189 144
jonathan.leather 19:06 19:10 100 76
benedick 19:16 27:48 144 109
pterodactyl 19:18 27:57 144 109
andrewlake 19:19 27:03 140 106
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:42 34:16 173 132
Ease This Jam 19:46 28:20 143 109
John Arnold 20:16 27:47 137 104
Zander 20:20 36:14 178 135
Foozler 20:20 28:03 137 104
Solver52 20:25 23:41 116 88
Terrier 20:40 23:11 112 85
barracuda barracuda 20:45 34:01 163 124
annbrew 21:24 21:27 100 76
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:11 23:11 104 79
Jagsfan1971 22:19 38:18 171 130
crosswordian 23:15 31:43 136 103
goblin 23:47 31:32 132 100
Jeeves 24:19 34:03 140 106
zythum 24:28 24:27 99 75
MartianAlien 24:54 22:52 91 69
FrameShift 25:35 12:20 48 36
Corymbia Corymbia 25:36 36:30 142 108
UisceTe 26:16 40:17 153 116
Fidelio 26:31 29:33 111 84
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:46 35:06 126 96
jimancliffe 29:07 30:28 104 79
Pauline Minter 29:15 30:37 104 79
suethepotterer 30:55 39:54 129 98
JoeyC 31:33 59:28 188 143
koro kororareka 31:33 59:38 189 144
medodd 31:38 38:56 123 93
boltonwanderer 31:39 51:00 161 122
ulaca ulaca 32:13 60:28 187 142
klamery4 32:13 41:26 128 97
Cookincats 32:47 45:39 139 106
wimpoldo 32:49 28:27 86 65
dosbarth 33:11 35:40 107 81
Mike Harper Mike Harper 33:32 52:46 157 119
FelicityTT 34:12 41:50 122 93
6098mr 37:34 33:35 89 67
empty 42:43 52:55 123 93
Rookie 43:13 59:18 137 104
MartinP MartinP1 45:23 96:23 212 161
jackk.larg 49:17 78:44 159 121
kjbr 54:30 88:14 161 122

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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