Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28053

Date 11 August 2021
Number 28053
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 83
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28053

* 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
Nathan Panning 06:21 04:57 77 92
Jason 06:35 06:14 94 113
edwards.robert1 06:55 07:35 109 131
verlaine Verlaine 07:09 04:40 65 78
mauefw Mauefw 07:40 07:00 91 109
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 07:09 91 109
Diskus 07:49 05:37 71 85
hilarym 08:07 09:04 111 133
lili 08:20 05:20 64 77
Midas 08:54 08:55 100 120
chindit 09:41 09:26 97 116
boulemiche 09:48 10:00 102 122
scrabbler 10:19 06:07 59 71
chriswords 10:27 08:18 79 95
AlanS 10:39 06:35 61 73
lickert 10:49 13:16 122 146
jimpen 10:52 10:45 98 118
glheard glh 11:09 07:31 67 80
trux trux20 11:49 07:32 63 75
ChuckB 12:06 12:26 102 122
Sue Sweeper 12:09 19:34 161 193
neilr neilr 12:16 09:49 80 96
keriothe_ keriothe 12:30 11:11 89 107
aphasic 12:46 11:47 92 110
p.wild 12:49 11:53 92 110
SimonAnthony 12:53 11:39 90 108
HenryBW 12:55 11:16 87 104
xyster 13:07 10:07 77 92
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 08:55 67 80
Sheapey Sheapey 13:17 08:14 61 73
Heyesey 13:20 08:03 60 72
Malcj malcj 13:29 11:21 84 101
John Walsh 13:40 12:59 95 114
Silva 13:42 12:39 92 110
jamesah 13:46 14:06 102 122
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:56 12:53 92 110
Ben Staveley 14:08 13:02 92 110
Crucifer Crucifer 14:11 14:53 104 125
Groucho 14:16 18:09 127 153
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:23 11:26 79 95
qieduan 14:28 10:37 73 87
David Crooks dcrooks 14:37 14:01 95 114
Tibthorpe 14:43 11:53 80 96
grape 15:04 14:29 96 115
gabrojak 15:16 12:35 82 98
phthisis 15:52 14:21 90 108
JezWoolfrey 15:52 17:47 112 134
Squallaby 15:59 16:14 101 121
Looch 16:01 17:57 112 134
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:02 20:09 125 150
Golvellius 16:06 15:26 95 114
cyrillic 16:29 14:16 86 103
franceslc11 16:55 14:26 85 102
Pootle Pootle 17:09 13:27 78 93
ajcauk1 17:10 15:35 90 108
alexh 17:17 17:55 103 124
annelambirth 17:17 19:46 114 137
tapbarker 17:18 13:12 76 91
LJCN 17:36 15:47 89 107
LouWeed LouWeed 17:41 17:04 96 115
Craven 17:43 15:33 87 104
MK76 17:45 16:33 93 112
RobR RobR 17:52 15:56 89 107
GMcD 17:54 15:39 87 104
CentralLine CentralLine 18:17 12:23 67 80
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 14:09 77 92
Richard Bull 18:19 18:40 101 121
wyn.dil 18:24 15:52 86 103
Semillon 18:45 18:52 100 120
jonathan.leather 19:06 19:44 103 124
pterodactyl 19:18 18:27 95 114
andrewlake 19:19 16:32 85 102
David Bourne 19:28 22:12 114 137
Zander 20:20 17:26 85 102
barracuda barracuda 20:45 21:46 104 125
jaraab 20:56 18:24 87 104
annbrew 21:24 16:57 79 95
James P Special_bitter 21:59 20:25 92 110
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:11 28:11 127 153
Jagsfan1971 22:19 15:22 68 81
pc8 22:32 20:47 92 110
brian.mcnamara 22:33 22:26 99 119
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:06 26:43 115 138
endafk 23:09 17:46 76 91
crosswordian 23:15 20:14 87 104
goblin 23:47 19:42 82 98
Jeeves 24:19 15:33 63 75
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:46 22:50 92 110
Nangle 25:09 22:45 90 108
Deane Short Deane Short 25:18 27:44 109 131
timbo 25:30 29:12 114 137
FrameShift 25:35 11:55 46 55
Corymbia Corymbia 25:36 24:22 95 114
stainl665 25:46 19:02 73 87
Fidelio 26:31 30:58 116 139
Waterloo 26:37 25:43 96 115
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:25 29:19 106 127
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:46 24:25 87 104
Tudds 27:53 24:20 87 104
chris661554 29:13 20:26 69 83
gbestanley 30:02 34:10 113 136
SlumdogEngineer 30:09 22:56 76 91
rosselliot 30:15 39:32 130 156
koro kororareka 31:33 28:17 89 107
medodd 31:38 26:42 84 101
boltonwanderer 31:39 38:00 120 144
Curarist Curarist 31:42 29:20 92 110
NAPASAI napasai 31:53 22:55 71 85
klamery4 32:13 20:24 63 75
Cookincats 32:47 28:29 86 103
wimpoldo 32:49 36:16 110 132
branch branch 34:34 27:47 80 96
HanS 35:26 52:07 147 177
Jadebee 36:11 31:49 87 104
maryht 39:53 38:23 96 115
andrewmr 42:07 27:33 65 78
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 42:35 37:09 87 104
JGP 42:36 95:08 223 268
Maggot 43:25 38:01 87 104
tyrotim tyrotim 43:31 30:23 69 83
marp 44:07 38:36 87 104
Shushannah 44:31 40:30 90 108
MartinP MartinP1 45:23 68:07 150 180
infinitejest 45:42 31:21 68 81
jackk.larg 49:17 46:45 94 113
paulmcl paulmcl 51:34 76:16 147 177
kjbr 54:30 64:29 118 142

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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