Crossword SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Cryptic Crossword
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Times Cryptic Crossword 28125

Date 03 November 2021
Number 28125
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 77
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28125

* 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
Jason 06:35 04:32 68 88
Diskus 07:01 06:58 99 128
verlaine Verlaine 07:04 06:17 88 114
edwards.robert1 07:08 06:13 87 112
mistigris 07:40 05:36 73 94
aphis99 aphis99 07:53 05:36 71 92
hilarym 08:10 06:19 77 100
lili 08:20 08:04 96 124
Paul Gilbert 08:43 09:04 104 135
Midas 08:52 06:48 76 98
asaldanha 09:19 12:29 133 172
richard 09:42 10:59 113 146
chindit 09:52 07:39 77 100
boulemiche 10:12 09:35 93 120
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:14 08:40 84 109
scrabbler 10:15 08:19 81 105
AlanS 10:35 09:24 88 114
chriswords 10:39 08:02 75 97
jimpen 10:47 10:24 96 124
Kinghedger 10:54 09:46 89 115
glheard glh 11:18 09:45 86 111
neilr neilr 11:52 07:55 66 85
keriothe_ keriothe 12:07 08:29 70 90
fshephe 12:20 08:56 72 93
ChuckB 12:23 07:48 62 80
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:26 08:15 66 85
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:58 09:22 72 93
HenryBW 13:00 08:42 66 85
p.wild 13:02 11:12 85 110
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:02 11:39 89 115
Stavros Stavrolex 13:12 13:10 99 128
SimonAnthony 13:13 08:49 66 85
Sheapey Sheapey 13:18 06:07 45 58
xyster 13:30 10:20 76 98
Spur58 13:33 16:26 121 157
Silva 13:47 12:20 89 115
tilbee 13:47 11:05 80 103
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:48 10:43 77 100
jamesah 13:48 13:40 99 128
Crucifer Crucifer 13:50 09:45 70 90
Malcj malcj 14:02 11:08 79 102
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:04 10:20 73 94
Groucho 14:08 11:32 81 105
Ben Staveley 14:12 09:00 63 81
Tibthorpe 14:18 10:40 74 96
David Crooks dcrooks 14:43 12:01 81 105
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:43 15:39 106 137
tunflog 14:54 12:39 84 109
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:07 09:21 61 79
JezWoolfrey 15:21 14:08 92 119
gabrojak 15:37 13:37 87 112
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 15:52 11:55 75 97
Golvellius 16:07 11:13 69 89
Squallaby 16:19 13:04 80 103
johninterred Johninterred 16:21 14:29 88 114
cyrillic 16:33 12:12 73 94
njnclarke 16:39 11:57 71 92
Pootle Pootle 16:41 26:43 160 207
annelambirth 17:10 14:59 87 112
zinzan 17:24 11:20 65 84
LJCN 17:28 16:12 92 119
tapbarker 17:43 14:09 79 102
Craven 17:45 18:15 102 132
GMcD 17:53 13:47 77 100
Pete_Hartley 18:03 16:20 90 116
wyn.dil 18:04 15:07 83 107
LouWeed LouWeed 18:06 11:28 63 81
RobR RobR 18:12 16:16 89 115
Hamish.S 18:17 19:18 105 136
gsriordan52 18:31 14:10 76 98
CentralLine CentralLine 18:34 12:30 67 87
Swanny 18:52 21:12 112 145
robinh 19:03 22:44 119 154
Semillon 19:09 14:02 73 94
Achernar 19:12 17:11 89 115
andrewlake 19:17 19:52 103 133
Colin2355 19:19 13:03 67 87
pterodactyl 19:24 14:13 73 94
Zander 19:28 15:08 77 100
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:48 15:31 78 101
Crossiant 20:13 15:01 74 96
annbrew 20:33 15:58 77 100
John Arnold 20:44 18:09 87 112
barracuda barracuda 20:46 11:13 54 70
Solver52 20:49 20:34 98 127
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:00 18:40 88 114
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:42 14:08 65 84
James P Special_bitter 21:43 25:08 115 149
george.garlick 22:12 15:39 70 90
endafk 22:38 13:21 58 75
Deane Short Deane Short 23:02 12:33 54 70
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:09 19:34 84 109
crosswordian 23:11 15:17 65 84
goblin 23:55 19:10 80 103
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:28 17:47 72 93
cmcnsmith 25:30 25:51 101 131
FrameShift 26:08 05:14 20 25
Waterloo 26:27 15:54 60 77
david_ch 27:03 18:00 66 85
UisceTe 27:11 18:48 69 89
pph22 27:13 16:13 59 76
Tudds 27:17 18:42 68 88
jimancliffe 27:22 18:23 67 87
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:11 20:07 71 92
chris661554 28:24 18:01 63 81
Crippens1 28:31 16:45 58 75
Menelaus 28:36 46:20 162 210
nekabue 28:43 15:47 54 70
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 29:24 23:55 81 105
JoeyC 30:03 21:57 73 94
SlumdogEngineer 30:04 18:46 62 80
medodd 30:11 23:50 78 101
Curarist Curarist 31:03 18:03 58 75
koro kororareka 32:20 28:22 87 112
boltonwanderer 32:25 27:00 83 107
Lloyd 32:30 28:35 87 112
Dr_Bob 32:51 20:34 62 80
dosbarth 33:21 32:11 96 124
ulaca ulaca 33:34 19:51 59 76
Cookincats 33:51 27:08 80 103
wimpoldo 34:30 29:36 85 110
HanS 34:56 36:31 104 135
Glyndwr 35:29 31:10 87 112
BertieVII 35:42 26:03 72 93
symbenall2 37:00 21:43 58 75
starstruck starstruck_au 37:07 24:08 65 84
kapietro kapietro 40:07 33:22 83 107
maryht 40:22 39:39 98 127
tyrotim tyrotim 42:08 39:05 92 119
empty 42:20 30:54 72 93
infinitejest 42:22 46:23 109 141
Rookie 42:33 28:58 68 88
marp 43:44 40:46 93 120
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 44:04 31:58 72 93
jackk.larg 51:32 42:42 82 106

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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