Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 27695

Date 19 June 2020
Number 27695
Day of week Friday
NITCH 139
Count of ref solvers 58
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27695

* 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 03:42 04:56 133 95
edwards.robert1 04:30 05:11 115 82
Eamon Ryan 06:15 11:34 185 133
verlaine Verlaine 07:16 10:34 145 104
tiljo 07:17 07:55 108 77
Nathan Panning 07:21 07:19 99 71
mistigris 07:46 15:41 201 144
aphis99 aphis99 08:31 13:48 162 116
asaldanha 09:31 08:46 92 66
Midas 09:36 11:25 118 84
richard 09:51 13:06 132 94
AlanS 10:25 18:36 178 128
chindit 10:29 14:57 142 102
scrabbler 11:13 15:59 142 102
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:33 17:54 154 110
glheard glh 11:44 11:43 99 71
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:44 15:08 128 92
SimonAnthony 11:58 26:32 221 158
keriothe_ keriothe 12:22 15:21 124 89
Kinghedger 12:25 19:59 160 115
neilr neilr 12:28 18:55 151 108
p.wild 12:42 12:51 101 72
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 20:16 156 112
Stavros Stavrolex 12:59 25:53 199 143
aphasic 13:33 18:07 133 95
Sheapey Sheapey 13:35 19:26 143 102
robertL 13:38 14:40 107 76
Spur58 13:49 18:51 136 97
fshephe 14:01 20:57 149 107
Silva 14:01 17:38 125 89
Malcj malcj 14:41 27:02 184 132
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:49 21:38 146 105
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 20:31 134 96
phthisis 16:20 20:05 122 87
Penfold_61 Penfold 16:21 21:05 128 92
doublecross anguswalker 16:22 33:14 203 146
mikegrocott 16:22 23:56 146 105
cyrillic 16:32 22:22 135 97
Eddddddd 16:56 22:03 130 93
tapbarker 17:29 21:05 120 86
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:01 20:50 115 82
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:02 31:04 172 123
LouWeed LouWeed 18:10 26:06 143 102
RobR RobR 18:22 30:06 163 117
Craven 18:24 29:46 161 115
GMcD 18:30 37:25 202 145
robinh 18:35 30:07 162 116
margaretl 18:54 27:17 144 103
LJCN 19:01 20:03 105 75
Zander 19:13 32:17 167 120
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 19:23 28:27 146 105
Looch 19:40 23:17 118 84
rupe 19:54 27:51 139 100
johninterred Johninterred 20:00 24:48 124 89
barracuda barracuda 20:49 33:17 159 114
Pootle Pootle 21:04 28:53 137 98
andrewlake 21:24 30:32 142 102
Zabadak (zabadak2) 21:33 28:37 132 94
colin2355 22:05 30:29 138 99
gbestanley 22:46 25:36 112 80
brian.mcnamara 22:51 40:06 175 125
peterh 23:11 21:57 94 67
goblin 24:16 41:37 171 123
dec 24:50 35:52 144 103
pc8 25:11 25:03 99 71
zythum 25:56 32:34 125 89
crosswordian 26:00 35:32 136 97
rjcassidy rjcassidy 26:05 41:31 159 114
klamery4 26:22 39:47 150 107
MartianAlien 26:28 29:00 109 78
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 29:05 32:25 111 79
Mkgnao Mkgnao 29:33 32:25 109 78
nekabue 30:17 43:30 143 102
Tudds 30:36 40:57 133 95
alexh 31:19 32:46 104 74
1234 31:29 44:03 139 100
ulaca ulaca 31:35 50:44 160 115
koro kororareka 31:36 43:57 139 100
HanS 31:43 27:21 86 61
boltonwanderer 31:50 80:00 251 180
stainl665 32:51 36:58 112 80
Crippens1 33:47 59:31 176 126
Glyndwr 34:42 54:45 157 112
SwissWavey 35:48 24:39 68 48
MrGrumpy 35:53 36:26 101 72
maryht 37:10 34:14 92 66
Curarist Curarist 37:16 54:16 145 104
Nangle 37:48 60:06 158 113
empty 40:22 47:34 117 84
wyn.dil 43:04 87:14 202 145
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 46:18 104 74
vissa 45:04 39:23 87 62
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 57:26 123 88
FrameShift 49:55 06:43 13 9
Masha 51:27 61:02 118 84

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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