Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 27895

Date 08 February 2021
Number 27895
Day of week Monday
NITCH 67
Count of ref solvers 54
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 27895

* 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 03:43 03:42 99 147
mohn mohn2 05:11 03:24 65 97
Jason 06:28 03:40 56 83
Nathan Panning 06:45 04:27 65 97
Diskus 06:49 05:12 76 113
verlaine Verlaine 06:49 06:23 93 138
edwards.robert1 07:39 08:32 111 165
aphis99 aphis99 07:56 05:12 65 97
hilarym 08:03 05:40 70 104
Midas 08:54 07:46 87 129
Paul Gilbert 08:57 07:01 78 116
asaldanha 09:04 05:21 59 88
richard 09:10 06:28 70 104
boulemiche 09:42 10:52 112 167
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 09:48 06:36 67 100
chindit 09:49 05:53 59 88
scrabbler 09:51 06:36 67 100
chriswords 10:14 09:56 97 144
lickert 11:10 05:03 45 67
glheard glh 11:19 07:01 62 92
Kinghedger 11:19 06:18 55 82
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:25 07:52 68 101
robertL 11:26 13:00 113 168
jimpen 11:35 10:36 91 135
trux trux20 12:07 07:17 60 89
neilr neilr 12:14 08:28 69 102
Sheapey Sheapey 12:37 05:57 47 70
Pavel Tudor 12:50 12:39 98 146
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:54 07:10 55 82
p.wild 12:56 11:43 90 134
HenryBW 13:03 07:21 56 83
SimonAnthony 13:11 07:43 58 86
Silva 13:22 08:29 63 94
keriothe_ keriothe 13:24 09:44 72 107
fshephe 13:25 13:33 100 149
Stavros Stavrolex 13:33 07:49 57 85
John Walsh 13:36 14:50 109 162
jamesah 13:40 10:16 75 111
Tibthorpe 13:41 10:39 77 114
Secondbass 13:53 07:36 54 80
doublecross anguswalker 14:00 09:59 71 105
Groucho 14:19 10:09 70 104
taberdar 14:26 05:07 35 52
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:29 14:03 97 144
Malcj malcj 14:32 11:55 81 120
tilbee 14:32 10:21 71 105
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:37 10:08 69 102
Spanna 14:45 15:19 103 153
cyrillic 14:49 11:16 76 113
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 15:12 12:14 80 119
David Crooks dcrooks 15:28 10:40 68 101
tunflog 15:32 17:06 110 164
grape 15:37 18:15 116 173
phthisis 16:07 09:41 60 89
njnclarke 16:24 08:54 54 80
d.middleton 16:29 13:37 82 122
Golvellius 16:45 14:43 87 129
fuzz 16:59 12:26 73 108
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 17:04 12:15 71 105
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 17:12 12:19 71 105
tapbarker 17:13 16:34 96 143
LJCN 17:28 14:37 83 123
GMcD 17:41 11:28 64 95
Ease This Jam 17:47 08:52 49 73
annelambirth 18:04 11:27 63 94
Paul Bacon 18:04 14:34 80 119
peterh 18:06 18:15 100 149
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:15 12:50 70 104
Hamish.S 18:17 14:17 78 116
Pootle Pootle 18:18 27:48 151 225
robinh 18:18 12:44 69 102
LouWeed LouWeed 18:27 14:06 76 113
RobR RobR 18:28 13:24 72 107
Looch 18:34 14:59 80 119
Edprof 18:41 11:43 62 92
Craven 18:42 14:09 75 111
pterodactyl 19:01 12:14 64 95
jaraab 19:08 20:15 105 156
Terrier 19:08 13:11 68 101
Swanny 19:13 13:02 67 100
LuckOfLucien 19:16 17:15 89 132
gsriordan52 19:26 14:31 74 110
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:30 14:17 73 108
NigeA 20:34 10:55 53 79
george.garlick 20:36 12:59 63 94
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:54 14:59 71 105
colin2355 20:55 14:38 69 102
CentralLine CentralLine 20:56 10:16 49 73
kath 20:56 14:15 68 101
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 21:15 21:40 101 150
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:17 09:47 45 67
brian.mcnamara 22:58 19:36 85 126
goblin 23:01 16:38 72 107
James P Special_bitter 23:28 13:14 56 83
pc8 23:33 15:48 67 100
zythum 23:48 19:56 83 123
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:15 14:51 61 91
Richard Bull 24:27 15:36 63 94
dec 24:47 13:39 55 82
annbrew 24:49 17:27 70 104
klamery4 25:02 28:22 113 168
pph22 25:27 23:49 93 138
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:26 25:11 95 141
UisceTe 27:09 24:01 88 131
Tudds 28:26 24:46 87 129
nekabue 28:32 20:02 70 104
Manveru 28:42 27:31 95 141
Lloyd 29:40 14:24 48 71
ulaca ulaca 30:42 23:37 76 113
boltonwanderer 30:50 18:00 58 86
koro kororareka 31:19 23:38 75 111
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:35 22:25 70 104
medodd 32:18 28:10 87 129
HanS 33:07 42:16 127 189
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 34:01 18:22 53 79
Cookincats 34:31 36:20 105 156
dosbarth 35:49 31:11 87 129
Crippens1 35:56 21:13 59 88
maryht 36:35 35:11 96 143
auntie noele 36:57 21:19 57 85
Curarist Curarist 37:14 34:09 91 135
Pendrov 38:24 17:37 45 67
FrameShift 38:31 39:58 103 153
empty 38:43 33:16 85 126
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 22:26 55 82
MartinP MartinP1 43:10 33:51 78 116
Ronnie 43:16 34:08 78 116
joss henry 43:33 16:32 37 55
symbenall2 44:50 35:48 79 117
paulmcl paulmcl 49:38 108:18 218 325
jackk.larg 51:46 19:27 37 55

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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