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 28113

Date 20 October 2021
Number 28113
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 75
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28113

* 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 03:53 02:48 72 96
mohn mohn2 04:49 04:55 102 136
Nathan Panning 06:25 04:18 67 89
Jason 06:35 05:30 83 110
Diskus 07:01 04:27 63 84
verlaine Verlaine 07:04 04:10 58 77
edwards.robert1 07:08 05:59 83 110
mauefw Mauefw 07:32 05:46 76 101
mistigris 07:40 05:59 78 104
aphis99 aphis99 07:53 07:30 95 126
hilarym 08:10 08:02 98 130
lili 08:20 06:28 77 102
Paul Gilbert 08:43 09:35 109 145
Midas 08:52 07:15 81 108
asaldanha 09:19 10:15 110 146
richard 09:42 08:00 82 109
chindit 09:52 11:54 120 160
boulemiche 10:12 08:08 79 105
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:14 08:03 78 104
scrabbler 10:15 09:32 93 124
AlanS 10:35 09:36 90 120
jimpen 10:47 11:03 102 136
Kinghedger 10:54 11:05 101 134
glheard glh 11:18 07:11 63 84
neilr neilr 11:52 07:16 61 81
tiggis 11:53 13:26 113 150
keriothe_ keriothe 12:07 08:47 72 96
fshephe 12:20 08:22 67 89
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:26 09:16 74 98
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:58 09:47 75 100
HenryBW 13:00 08:53 68 90
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:02 11:18 86 114
p.wild 13:02 08:32 65 86
SimonAnthony 13:13 07:06 53 70
Sheapey Sheapey 13:18 08:28 63 84
xyster 13:30 10:14 75 100
Spur58 13:33 14:39 108 144
John Walsh 13:39 11:55 87 116
tilbee 13:47 10:09 73 97
Silva 13:47 12:00 87 116
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:48 10:23 75 100
Crucifer Crucifer 13:50 09:59 72 96
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:04 12:34 89 118
Ben Staveley 14:12 13:13 93 124
TB22 14:15 22:10 155 206
qieduan 14:17 11:37 81 108
Tibthorpe 14:18 12:36 88 117
canismiser 14:32 13:32 93 124
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:43 15:03 102 136
David Crooks dcrooks 14:43 17:04 115 153
tunflog 14:54 16:38 111 148
phthisis 15:19 13:02 85 113
JezWoolfrey 15:21 14:52 96 128
Looch 15:35 16:18 104 138
gabrojak 15:37 10:59 70 93
Paul Bacon 15:42 15:38 99 132
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 15:52 10:57 69 92
Golvellius 16:07 11:49 73 97
Squallaby 16:19 21:16 130 173
johninterred Johninterred 16:21 11:05 67 89
cyrillic 16:33 13:54 83 110
Pootle Pootle 16:41 11:53 71 94
mikegrocott 17:15 20:08 116 154
zinzan 17:24 11:32 66 88
LJCN 17:28 13:39 78 104
tapbarker 17:43 14:45 83 110
Craven 17:45 14:19 80 106
GMcD 17:53 14:10 79 105
Pete_Hartley 18:03 18:14 101 134
wyn.dil 18:04 20:21 112 149
LouWeed LouWeed 18:06 13:23 73 97
RobR RobR 18:12 20:05 110 146
Hamish.S 18:17 18:38 101 134
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:21 17:12 93 124
robinh 19:03 11:54 62 82
Semillon 19:09 11:29 59 78
Achernar 19:12 15:10 78 104
andrewlake 19:17 14:45 76 101
Colin2355 19:19 15:53 82 109
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:48 11:54 60 80
Crossiant 20:13 11:37 57 76
John Arnold 20:44 24:26 117 156
barracuda barracuda 20:46 22:30 108 144
kath 20:48 12:52 61 81
Solver52 20:49 21:40 104 138
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:42 17:33 80 106
george.garlick 22:12 18:41 84 112
Jagsfan1971 22:29 14:49 65 86
pc8 22:31 17:35 78 104
endafk 22:38 15:19 67 89
Deane Short Deane Short 23:02 15:25 66 88
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:09 19:12 82 109
crosswordian 23:11 18:36 80 106
alwsn8 23:21 13:25 57 76
goblin 23:55 27:14 113 150
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:28 21:35 88 117
Corymbia Corymbia 25:16 16:34 65 86
timbo 25:41 20:09 78 104
FrameShift 26:08 19:54 76 101
Waterloo 26:27 17:20 65 86
1234 26:47 13:46 51 68
david_ch 27:03 41:23 152 202
pph22 27:13 17:05 62 82
Tudds 27:17 14:26 52 69
jimancliffe 27:22 22:15 81 108
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:31 19:05 69 92
Pauline Minter 28:10 21:18 75 100
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:11 20:22 72 96
chris661554 28:24 29:03 102 136
Crippens1 28:31 28:52 101 134
Menelaus 28:36 25:34 89 118
phmfantom phmfantom 28:39 20:10 70 93
nekabue 28:43 14:30 50 66
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 29:24 26:18 89 118
suethepotterer 29:38 24:30 82 109
medodd 30:11 22:43 75 100
Curarist Curarist 31:03 11:22 36 48
NAPASAI napasai 31:50 25:19 79 105
gbestanley 31:53 27:05 84 112
koro kororareka 32:20 34:16 105 140
boltonwanderer 32:25 31:00 95 126
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:44 19:47 60 80
Dr_Bob 32:51 23:12 70 93
ulaca ulaca 33:34 43:44 130 173
Cookincats 33:51 22:13 65 86
HanS 34:56 29:21 84 112
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:09 23:48 65 86
starstruck starstruck_au 37:07 45:03 121 161
maryht 40:22 29:21 72 96
Maggot 41:13 35:18 85 113
tyrotim tyrotim 42:08 32:51 77 102
empty 42:20 27:59 66 88
infinitejest 42:22 32:06 75 100
Rookie 42:33 23:50 56 74
marp 43:44 38:38 88 117
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 44:04 28:11 63 84
MartinP MartinP1 45:07 41:12 91 121

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