Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 27849

Date 16 December 2020
Number 27849
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 124
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 11
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27849

* 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 03:41 04:02 109 87
edwards.robert1 04:59 12:02 241 194
mohn mohn2 05:10 06:24 123 99
Jason 06:27 08:57 138 111
Diskus 06:33 09:16 141 113
verlaine Verlaine 06:59 08:56 127 102
Nathan Panning 07:00 15:31 221 178
mistigris 07:13 09:30 131 105
aphis99 aphis99 07:58 08:37 108 87
hilarym 08:08 11:46 144 116
Midas 08:53 09:26 106 85
asaldanha 08:55 10:22 116 93
richard 09:19 09:39 103 83
AlanS 09:55 14:01 141 113
chindit 09:57 15:50 159 128
scrabbler 10:03 12:52 128 103
chriswords 10:11 12:56 127 102
tiggis 11:07 15:04 135 108
lickert 11:09 13:23 120 96
glheard glh 11:23 20:19 178 143
Kinghedger 11:37 17:41 152 122
trux trux20 11:43 13:40 116 93
jimpen 11:44 12:21 105 84
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:07 22:29 185 149
Mekon 12:11 23:30 192 154
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:34 16:35 131 105
neilr neilr 12:43 13:13 103 83
Sheapey Sheapey 12:45 18:01 141 113
miked1961 12:46 14:12 111 89
p.wild 12:52 17:48 138 111
keriothe_ keriothe 13:09 13:43 104 83
Silva 13:11 18:12 138 111
Tibthorpe 13:28 20:11 149 120
fshephe 13:39 13:18 97 78
Secondbass 13:53 14:45 106 85
Groucho 13:56 18:04 129 104
qieduan 14:04 19:03 135 108
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:12 18:15 128 103
Sue Sweeper 14:25 23:36 163 131
cyrillic 14:40 19:03 129 104
tilbee 14:55 18:30 124 100
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:56 17:00 113 91
Malcj malcj 14:58 19:03 127 102
tunflog 15:12 18:50 123 99
March (JeffCollins) mch1 15:12 22:15 146 117
mikegrocott 15:39 17:15 110 88
David Crooks dcrooks 15:40 23:26 149 120
Golvellius 16:39 20:44 124 100
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:54 21:39 128 103
tapbarker 16:55 15:22 90 72
fuzz 17:10 21:04 122 98
LJCN 17:21 23:36 136 109
johninterred Johninterred 17:26 25:03 143 115
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 17:35 14:50 84 67
GMcD 17:44 18:50 106 85
Valance 17:48 25:54 145 116
robinh 17:53 25:48 144 116
peterh 17:54 20:26 114 91
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 18:04 15:27 85 68
LouWeed LouWeed 18:19 29:26 160 129
Hamish.S 18:38 31:32 169 136
Pootle Pootle 18:52 31:05 164 132
Craven 18:56 21:46 114 91
Looch 19:06 17:20 90 72
Swanny 19:27 27:33 141 113
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:35 29:10 148 119
andrewlake 19:38 32:41 166 133
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 20:10 25:37 127 102
Edprof 20:17 20:59 103 83
CentralLine CentralLine 20:32 21:42 105 84
barracuda barracuda 20:37 29:49 144 116
colin2355 20:42 23:50 115 92
ajcauk1 20:45 28:52 139 112
fraserhardie59 21:36 25:25 117 94
Zander 21:53 29:49 136 109
Jagsfan1971 22:14 29:38 133 107
margaretl 22:27 28:26 126 101
sampson 22:49 24:59 109 87
goblin 23:27 24:09 102 82
pc8 23:50 34:27 144 116
tgipaul 24:08 28:57 119 95
Richard Bull 24:14 32:16 133 107
James P Special_bitter 24:29 42:08 172 138
Waterloo 24:32 28:59 118 95
alwsn8 24:35 22:56 93 75
crosswordian 24:43 34:20 138 111
annbrew 26:31 34:40 130 104
UisceTe 27:00 30:53 114 91
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:01 26:32 98 79
john.brassey 27:26 27:32 100 80
MartianAlien 27:38 26:07 94 75
Manveru 27:44 26:22 95 76
Corymbia Corymbia 27:44 48:04 173 139
Tudds 27:49 26:46 96 77
SwissWavey 27:52 27:46 99 79
Pauline Minter 29:05 35:22 121 97
Lloyd 29:28 60:06 203 163
joss henry 29:35 31:58 108 87
wyn.dil 29:48 22:52 76 61
NAPASAI napasai 29:59 42:48 142 114
boltonwanderer 31:57 57:00 178 143
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 32:46 36:46 112 90
npweston 32:57 42:44 129 104
HanS 33:08 37:47 114 91
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 36:16 62:26 172 138
Cookincats 36:33 46:04 126 101
FrameShift 36:36 59:20 162 130
maryht 37:47 42:27 112 90
empty 38:36 48:23 125 100
starstruck starstruck_au 40:31 68:43 169 136
MartinP MartinP1 42:48 50:56 119 95
jackk.larg 50:19 88:08 175 141
Bertiethethird 50:34 75:05 148 119
Masha 53:45 88:02 163 131

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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