Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28028

Date 13 July 2021
Number 28028
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 96
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28028

* 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 05:57 160 166
Nathan Panning 06:13 05:10 83 86
Jason 06:24 05:38 88 91
verlaine Verlaine 06:59 09:20 133 138
mistigris 07:29 05:59 79 82
aphis99 aphis99 07:45 07:42 99 103
Diskus 07:47 07:45 99 103
Steve.P 07:50 14:34 185 192
hilarym 07:57 12:16 154 160
lili 08:06 06:06 75 78
Paul Gilbert 08:29 14:55 175 182
Midas 08:51 08:24 94 97
richard 09:07 13:26 147 153
asaldanha 09:08 06:49 74 77
AlanS 10:08 09:57 98 102
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:10 09:32 93 96
scrabbler 10:14 12:21 120 125
Kinghedger 10:51 08:54 82 85
lickert 10:56 14:44 134 139
tiggis 10:58 15:10 138 143
glheard glh 11:10 09:48 87 90
trux trux20 11:40 12:39 108 112
miked1961 12:14 12:19 100 104
neilr neilr 12:14 13:32 110 114
SimonAnthony 12:37 13:00 103 107
aphasic 12:41 09:06 71 73
keriothe_ keriothe 12:42 08:29 66 68
HenryBW 12:42 13:34 106 110
p.wild 12:48 14:43 114 118
fshephe 12:53 11:31 89 92
xyster 12:54 18:02 139 144
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:01 15:19 117 121
Sheapey Sheapey 13:02 10:48 82 85
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:04 08:37 65 67
Stavros Stavrolex 13:06 12:06 92 95
jamesah 13:12 16:37 125 130
Silva 13:13 15:59 120 125
Heyesey 13:29 11:40 86 89
tilbee 13:32 13:28 99 103
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:39 19:46 144 150
Groucho 14:03 14:11 100 104
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:17 14:51 103 107
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 13:55 96 100
qieduan 14:31 14:32 100 104
canismiser 14:45 13:28 91 94
grape 14:47 15:18 103 107
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 15:54 15:12 95 98
phthisis 15:56 07:57 49 51
Paul Bacon 15:58 19:43 123 128
Looch 16:14 16:54 104 108
tapbarker 16:47 20:23 121 126
fuzz 17:09 17:46 103 107
annelambirth 17:12 20:11 117 121
Pootle Pootle 17:18 16:12 93 96
alexh 17:26 17:06 98 102
Valance 17:34 16:11 92 95
GMcD 17:41 17:32 99 103
Craven 17:44 18:04 101 105
Ease This Jam 17:47 13:38 76 79
LouWeed LouWeed 17:48 15:10 85 88
gsriordan52 17:49 20:21 114 118
wyn.dil 18:15 17:32 96 100
Semillon 18:21 13:32 73 76
Hamish.S 18:21 13:34 73 76
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:24 21:58 119 123
robinh 18:24 22:27 122 127
Achernar 18:32 18:48 101 105
Swanny 18:58 23:58 126 131
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:01 26:23 138 143
pterodactyl 19:06 23:51 124 129
jaraab 19:08 23:27 122 127
andrewlake 19:11 21:58 114 118
LuckOfLucien 19:45 17:48 90 93
Zander 20:01 27:32 137 142
colin2355 20:15 22:55 113 117
barracuda barracuda 20:18 17:04 84 87
annbrew 21:53 16:25 75 78
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:17 25:55 116 120
endafk 22:37 22:07 97 101
pc8 22:41 17:54 78 81
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 22:45 21:34 94 97
crosswordian 23:14 17:31 75 78
goblin 23:36 22:44 96 100
zythum 24:15 22:43 93 96
Foozler 24:30 19:20 78 81
Nangle 24:38 28:21 115 119
dec 24:43 20:14 81 84
Corymbia Corymbia 25:19 18:24 72 75
Waterloo 25:45 19:11 74 77
UisceTe 26:10 25:02 95 98
1234 26:15 21:02 80 83
timbo 26:32 28:02 105 109
Mkgnao Mkgnao 26:51 29:53 111 115
Tudds 27:28 26:52 97 101
Pauline Minter 27:52 28:08 100 104
SlumdogEngineer 28:17 29:44 105 109
npweston 29:57 21:16 71 73
rosselliot 30:11 23:11 76 79
gbestanley 30:21 30:05 99 103
ulaca ulaca 30:42 56:50 185 192
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 30:44 30:04 97 101
boltonwanderer 30:50 28:00 90 93
koro kororareka 31:22 34:34 110 114
Cookincats 31:46 26:36 83 86
JoeyC 32:58 30:59 93 96
HanS 33:07 35:32 107 111
symbenall2 34:23 31:46 92 95
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:21 34:46 98 102
dosbarth 36:41 46:32 126 131
Curarist Curarist 37:14 20:07 54 56
FrameShift 38:31 13:53 36 37
empty 38:43 38:42 99 103
starstruck starstruck_au 40:23 27:14 67 69
MartinP MartinP1 44:31 47:13 106 110
marp 47:00 44:55 95 98
kjbr 51:51 47:34 91 94
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 52:00 35:31 68 70
Bertiethethird 56:12 44:25 79 82

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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