Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 28114

Date 21 October 2021
Number 28114
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 143
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28114

* 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 04:50 124 86
mohn mohn2 04:49 08:32 177 123
Diskus 07:01 08:36 122 85
verlaine Verlaine 07:04 10:30 148 103
edwards.robert1 07:08 06:40 93 65
mistigris 07:40 08:56 116 81
aphis99 aphis99 07:53 12:02 152 106
lili 08:20 10:16 123 86
Paul Gilbert 08:43 15:16 175 122
Midas 08:52 12:04 136 95
asaldanha 09:19 10:26 111 77
richard 09:42 12:54 132 92
chindit 09:52 12:43 128 89
scrabbler 10:15 14:22 140 97
AlanS 10:35 18:23 173 120
Kinghedger 10:54 19:03 174 121
lickert 10:59 15:31 141 98
neilr neilr 11:52 21:10 178 124
Sue Sweeper 12:03 23:21 193 134
keriothe_ keriothe 12:07 15:27 127 88
Heyesey 12:25 31:59 257 179
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:26 23:25 188 131
aphasic 12:56 22:30 173 120
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:58 23:40 182 127
p.wild 13:02 19:55 152 106
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:02 21:31 165 115
Stavros Stavrolex 13:12 21:29 162 113
SimonAnthony 13:13 19:59 151 105
Sheapey Sheapey 13:18 25:54 194 135
xyster 13:30 17:37 130 90
tilbee 13:47 26:23 191 133
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:48 18:27 133 93
Crucifer Crucifer 13:50 20:19 146 102
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:04 22:07 157 109
Ben Staveley 14:12 14:19 100 69
qieduan 14:17 27:50 194 135
David Crooks dcrooks 14:43 20:27 138 96
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:43 22:18 151 105
phthisis 15:19 20:50 136 95
Aloysius 15:28 24:46 160 111
Looch 15:35 20:09 129 90
gabrojak 15:37 21:16 136 95
franceslc11 16:25 16:29 100 69
cyrillic 16:33 46:13 279 195
Pootle Pootle 16:41 20:32 123 86
alexh 16:48 21:31 128 89
mikegrocott 17:15 22:31 130 90
mrsbateman 17:20 21:01 121 84
LJCN 17:28 31:57 182 127
tapbarker 17:43 17:17 97 67
Craven 17:45 31:33 177 123
LouWeed LouWeed 18:06 24:45 136 95
rupe 18:08 26:47 147 102
RobR RobR 18:12 22:13 122 85
Hamish.S 18:17 26:39 145 101
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:21 20:22 110 76
gsriordan52 18:31 32:41 176 123
robinh 19:03 27:13 142 99
Semillon 19:09 31:49 166 116
andrewlake 19:17 26:41 138 96
Colin2355 19:19 38:31 199 139
Zander 19:28 31:17 160 111
benedick 19:36 23:38 120 83
uvofiz 19:44 28:42 145 101
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:48 33:39 169 118
Foozler 19:49 34:12 172 120
Ease This Jam 19:51 22:44 114 79
Crossiant 20:13 39:48 196 137
annbrew 20:33 28:16 137 95
Terrier 20:45 36:55 177 123
barracuda barracuda 20:46 26:02 125 87
Solver52 20:49 21:26 102 71
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:00 29:32 140 97
David Bourne 21:17 28:12 132 92
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:42 37:20 172 120
James P Special_bitter 21:43 46:32 214 149
Jagsfan1971 22:29 49:54 221 154
endafk 22:38 40:16 177 123
brian.mcnamara 22:51 23:47 104 72
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 23:00 63:11 274 191
crosswordian 23:11 29:18 126 88
goblin 23:55 36:47 153 106
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:28 56:36 231 161
Fidelio 26:05 46:11 177 123
FrameShift 26:08 26:18 100 69
stainl665 26:10 35:30 135 94
1234 26:47 61:12 228 159
david_ch 27:03 45:11 167 116
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:31 41:10 149 104
Pauline Minter 28:10 40:21 143 100
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:11 37:23 132 92
nekabue 28:43 58:22 203 141
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 29:24 59:56 203 141
suethepotterer 29:38 27:16 92 64
JoeyC 30:03 47:35 158 110
DanSolo 30:40 67:39 220 153
gbestanley 31:53 43:26 136 95
koro kororareka 32:20 48:25 149 104
boltonwanderer 32:25 53:00 163 113
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:44 55:55 170 118
Dr_Bob 32:51 41:13 125 87
Cookincats 33:51 58:24 172 120
wimpoldo 34:30 31:57 92 64
HanS 34:56 18:52 54 37
6098mr 36:12 41:04 113 79
starstruck starstruck_au 37:07 68:52 185 129
Maggot 41:13 72:43 176 123
infinitejest 42:22 62:50 148 103
Rookie 42:33 65:20 153 106
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 44:04 77:34 176 123
MartinP MartinP1 45:07 67:19 149 104
kjbr 55:28 103:15 186 130

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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