Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28052

Date 10 August 2021
Number 28052
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 67
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 2
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28052

* 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
mohn mohn2 04:48 03:54 81 120
Jason 06:35 04:04 61 91
edwards.robert1 06:55 12:41 183 273
verlaine Verlaine 07:09 04:03 56 83
mauefw Mauefw 07:40 03:36 46 68
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 08:32 109 162
Diskus 07:49 04:26 56 83
hilarym 08:07 06:08 75 111
lili 08:20 06:34 78 116
Midas 08:54 06:43 75 111
asaldanha 09:08 05:38 61 91
Contrarian2 contrarian2 09:29 05:24 56 83
chindit 09:41 06:29 66 98
boulemiche 09:48 06:43 68 101
scrabbler 10:19 09:21 90 134
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:27 10:01 95 141
chriswords 10:27 07:40 73 108
lickert 10:49 09:59 92 137
robertL 12:01 07:03 58 86
ChuckB 12:06 13:32 111 165
Sue Sweeper 12:09 08:27 69 102
neilr neilr 12:16 07:33 61 91
keriothe_ keriothe 12:30 07:30 60 89
fshephe 12:43 11:30 90 134
aphasic 12:46 11:50 92 137
p.wild 12:49 10:14 79 117
SimonAnthony 12:53 08:48 68 101
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:57 07:04 54 80
Stavros Stavrolex 13:07 06:28 49 73
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 07:28 56 83
Sheapey Sheapey 13:17 07:52 59 88
Secondbass 13:17 08:30 63 94
Malcj malcj 13:29 09:45 72 107
TB22 13:31 11:15 83 123
Silva 13:42 10:05 73 108
jamesah 13:46 13:39 99 147
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:56 09:05 65 97
Crucifer Crucifer 14:11 09:48 69 102
Groucho 14:16 10:31 73 108
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:23 12:35 87 129
qieduan 14:28 11:59 82 122
David Crooks dcrooks 14:37 12:22 84 125
Tibthorpe 14:43 10:57 74 110
d.middleton 14:53 12:27 83 123
grape 15:04 14:53 98 146
gabrojak 15:16 09:31 62 92
JezWoolfrey 15:52 12:36 79 117
phthisis 15:52 13:40 86 128
Squallaby 15:59 14:58 93 138
Looch 16:01 11:44 73 108
johninterred Johninterred 16:03 16:44 104 155
Golvellius 16:06 10:48 67 100
Froggo 16:14 15:23 94 140
cyrillic 16:29 14:12 86 128
franceslc11 16:55 13:44 81 120
Pootle Pootle 17:09 07:31 43 64
ajcauk1 17:10 15:25 89 132
GeorgeTz 17:10 13:57 81 120
annelambirth 17:17 17:21 100 149
alexh 17:17 11:39 67 100
tapbarker 17:18 12:50 74 110
zinzan 17:22 10:53 62 92
LJCN 17:36 09:04 51 76
LouWeed LouWeed 17:41 08:13 46 68
Craven 17:43 12:08 68 101
MK76 17:45 15:49 89 132
RobR RobR 17:52 12:04 67 100
GMcD 17:54 12:11 68 101
CentralLine CentralLine 18:17 08:35 46 68
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 12:06 66 98
Richard Bull 18:19 18:53 103 153
wyn.dil 18:24 16:34 90 134
robinh 18:36 14:55 80 119
Hamish.S 18:45 12:04 64 95
Semillon 18:45 11:38 62 92
pterodactyl 19:18 16:22 84 125
andrewlake 19:19 10:21 53 79
uvofiz 19:48 14:50 74 110
John Arnold 20:16 15:10 74 110
Foozler 20:20 17:04 83 123
Zander 20:20 09:50 48 71
kath 20:37 17:29 84 125
barracuda barracuda 20:45 12:41 61 91
James P Special_bitter 21:59 12:09 55 82
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:11 19:08 86 128
Jagsfan1971 22:19 09:38 43 64
endafk 23:09 13:41 59 88
goblin 23:47 20:37 86 128
Nangle 25:09 15:14 60 89
Deane Short Deane Short 25:18 12:50 50 74
timbo 25:30 19:00 74 110
FrameShift 25:35 12:59 50 74
Corymbia Corymbia 25:36 16:24 64 95
cmcnsmith 26:30 15:33 58 86
Fidelio 26:31 16:53 63 94
Waterloo 26:37 20:31 77 114
Manveru 26:46 20:34 76 113
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:25 13:18 48 71
nekabue 29:08 19:50 68 101
joss henry 29:11 19:33 66 98
chris661554 29:13 16:29 56 83
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:23 15:11 48 71
boltonwanderer 31:39 19:00 60 89
NAPASAI napasai 31:53 20:02 62 92
Cookincats 32:47 19:27 59 88
Mike Harper Mike Harper 33:32 19:13 57 85
DanSolo 35:00 16:14 46 68
Jadebee 36:11 19:30 53 79
JGP 42:36 22:59 53 79
MartinP MartinP1 45:23 17:50 39 58

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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