Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 27597

Date 26 February 2020
Number 27597
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 116
Count of ref solvers 57
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27597

* 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 03:24 05:27 160 137
edwards.robert1 04:20 04:27 102 87
tiljo 06:39 07:03 106 91
Jason 07:06 06:05 85 73
verlaine Verlaine 07:36 07:39 100 86
aphis99 aphis99 08:44 12:01 137 118
robertL 11:12 19:26 173 149
chriswords 11:35 11:41 100 86
keriothe_ keriothe 12:45 16:32 129 111
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:52 13:36 105 90
andy 12:57 02:04 15 12
SimonAnthony 13:12 09:22 70 60
p.wild 13:19 17:23 130 112
neilr neilr 13:24 11:43 87 75
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 13:48 101 87
Sheapey Sheapey 13:46 15:54 115 99
fshephe 13:54 14:07 101 87
Stavros Stavrolex 14:34 09:42 66 56
margaretl 15:29 26:11 169 145
Malcj malcj 15:34 22:57 147 126
mikegrocott 15:36 21:36 138 118
Sue Sweeper 15:38 12:03 77 66
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 15:41 16:07 102 87
HenryBW 15:56 14:38 91 78
KenG 16:04 19:24 120 103
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 16:04 19:24 120 103
cyrillic 16:19 21:01 128 110
LouWeed LouWeed 18:13 27:29 150 129
robinh 18:15 25:01 137 118
fuzz 18:39 20:14 108 93
Squallaby 18:49 22:32 119 102
Craven 18:52 27:05 143 123
RobR RobR 18:52 29:59 158 136
GMcD 19:19 23:20 120 103
andrewlake 21:29 36:42 170 146
barracuda barracuda 22:04 25:08 113 97
mcjwright 22:08 22:58 103 88
colin2355 22:45 39:16 172 148
Zabadak (zabadak2) 22:46 26:47 117 100
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:53 36:37 160 137
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:55 32:20 129 111
dec 25:05 28:14 112 96
goblin 25:18 34:12 135 116
frost 25:19 40:30 159 137
hugh.schofield 25:24 22:05 86 74
pc8 26:05 27:33 105 90
endafk 26:07 33:52 129 111
KET 26:33 30:20 114 98
zythum 27:46 36:37 131 112
William M 28:27 36:08 127 109
phmfantom phmfantom 28:36 55:32 194 167
nekabue 30:18 27:57 92 79
alwsn8 30:42 50:11 163 140
HanS 31:48 23:24 73 62
ulaca ulaca 32:12 39:31 122 105
Semillon 32:21 43:23 134 115
Agsurfer 32:38 35:38 109 93
Jeeves 33:32 57:35 171 147
Tudds 33:33 70:41 210 181
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 33:50 30:10 89 76
joss henry 34:15 45:38 133 114
SwissWavey 34:17 53:27 155 133
FelicityTT 34:18 41:45 121 104
MrGrumpy 35:48 34:57 97 83
Glyndwr 36:21 48:44 134 115
Archie 37:21 33:48 90 77
Paulypops 40:02 37:48 94 81
empty 40:40 47:04 115 99
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 41:32 54:20 130 112
Gussie 41:40 40:16 96 82
dannyduncs dannyduncs 43:54 58:23 132 113
MartinP MartinP1 45:24 63:29 139 119
symbenall2 46:34 60:18 129 111
Masha 49:35 64:43 130 112
Shushannah 50:43 54:46 107 92
andrewmr 51:01 72:01 141 121

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