Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 27730

Date 30 July 2020
Number 27730
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 123
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 9
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27730

* 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 03:36 97 78
mohn mohn2 05:26 07:33 138 112
Eamon Ryan 06:22 10:28 164 133
Nathan Panning 07:16 08:18 114 92
verlaine Verlaine 07:20 09:53 134 108
mistigris 07:48 10:33 135 109
aphis99 aphis99 08:29 09:35 112 91
asaldanha 09:30 08:04 84 68
Midas 09:34 10:01 104 84
richard 09:50 13:50 140 113
AlanS 10:06 19:06 189 153
chindit 10:32 09:41 91 73
jimpen 11:01 13:14 120 97
chriswords 11:01 11:00 99 80
scrabbler 11:07 12:35 113 91
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:41 13:22 114 92
glheard glh 11:52 13:38 114 92
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:55 15:03 126 102
SimonAnthony 12:01 16:23 136 110
Kinghedger 12:20 11:42 94 76
neilr neilr 12:32 17:25 138 112
keriothe_ keriothe 12:38 18:22 145 117
p.wild 12:40 14:19 113 91
Stavros Stavrolex 12:52 16:06 125 101
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:55 14:13 110 89
trux trux20 13:07 11:55 90 73
andy 13:09 12:11 92 74
Sheapey Sheapey 13:23 16:53 126 102
robertL 13:34 17:38 129 104
Spur58 13:49 15:54 115 93
HenryBW 13:58 16:46 120 97
Silva 14:03 21:44 154 125
fshephe 14:07 16:41 118 95
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:40 18:12 124 100
Tibthorpe 14:55 16:44 112 91
njnclarke 15:00 21:32 143 116
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 16:12 106 86
Sue Sweeper 15:16 22:37 148 120
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:55 22:16 139 113
doublecross anguswalker 16:01 19:21 120 97
David Crooks dcrooks 16:10 16:57 104 84
cyrillic 16:22 22:51 139 113
phthisis 16:27 14:59 91 73
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 42:32 243 197
tapbarker 17:30 24:51 142 115
fuzz 17:55 41:03 229 186
Golvellius 17:56 13:33 75 60
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 18:08 20:39 113 91
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:11 25:49 141 114
Squallaby 18:22 29:29 160 130
LouWeed LouWeed 18:23 28:51 156 126
robinh 18:26 20:12 109 88
Craven 18:37 22:39 121 98
GMcD 18:41 16:42 89 72
LJCN 18:44 23:54 127 103
annelambirth 19:16 19:52 103 83
John Arnold 19:46 27:45 140 113
Looch 19:53 26:34 133 108
Hamish.S 19:57 31:44 159 129
Zander 20:21 26:14 128 104
Zabadak (zabadak2) 20:50 25:58 124 100
mcjwright 21:01 23:29 111 90
benedick 21:03 33:25 158 128
colin2355 22:10 37:46 170 138
Solver52 22:12 20:32 92 74
sampson 22:24 32:12 143 116
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:26 27:34 122 99
gbestanley 23:04 30:47 133 108
goblin 24:45 31:31 127 103
timbo 24:46 34:40 139 113
pc8 25:00 36:01 144 117
dec 25:33 36:28 142 115
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:57 31:48 122 99
crosswordian 25:58 38:24 147 119
James P Special_bitter 26:19 36:52 140 113
Manveru 26:54 28:55 107 86
fudgiebates 27:12 37:23 137 111
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:47 38:08 137 111
alexh 29:22 33:28 113 91
Peter Sykes 29:38 33:45 113 91
Tudds 29:44 44:20 149 121
nekabue 29:58 37:54 126 102
HanS 31:43 33:10 104 84
koro kororareka 31:55 35:35 111 90
boltonwanderer 31:57 43:00 134 108
ulaca ulaca 32:43 37:13 113 91
stainl665 32:51 31:45 96 78
Crippens1 33:25 46:32 139 113
Archie 35:47 34:46 97 78
SwissWavey 35:48 37:55 105 85
Paulypops 36:46 48:48 132 107
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 37:17 57:49 155 126
starstruck starstruck_au 44:12 69:40 157 127
andrewmr 44:41 63:45 142 115
Ronnie 46:20 58:50 126 102
MartinP MartinP1 46:23 64:23 138 112
Shushannah 48:35 53:31 110 89
FrameShift 49:55 10:49 21 17
Masha 52:16 64:27 123 100

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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