Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28060

Date 19 August 2021
Number 28060
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 85
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28060

* 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 05:34 87 102
Jason 06:35 04:34 69 81
edwards.robert1 06:55 07:33 109 128
verlaine Verlaine 07:09 05:19 74 87
mistigris 07:32 06:10 81 95
mauefw Mauefw 07:40 05:24 70 82
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 07:32 96 112
Diskus 07:49 06:16 80 94
lili 08:20 04:46 57 67
Paul Gilbert 08:47 05:21 60 70
Midas 08:54 07:50 88 103
Contrarian2 contrarian2 09:29 06:42 70 82
chindit 09:41 08:11 84 98
boulemiche 09:48 12:42 129 151
scrabbler 10:19 10:54 105 123
chriswords 10:27 11:28 109 128
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:27 07:47 74 87
AlanS 10:39 09:42 91 107
Kinghedger 10:50 10:42 98 115
jimpen 10:52 09:44 89 104
glheard glh 11:09 10:37 95 111
robertL 12:01 11:08 92 108
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:04 12:01 99 116
ChuckB 12:06 13:24 110 129
neilr neilr 12:16 15:23 125 147
keriothe_ keriothe 12:30 12:32 100 117
p.wild 12:49 15:07 117 137
SimonAnthony 12:53 07:36 58 68
HenryBW 12:55 09:22 72 84
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:57 14:51 114 134
Spur58 13:06 08:30 64 75
Stavros Stavrolex 13:07 10:29 79 92
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 09:13 69 81
Sheapey Sheapey 13:17 07:57 59 69
Secondbass 13:17 09:26 71 83
Malcj malcj 13:29 16:07 119 140
TB22 13:31 09:28 70 82
John Walsh 13:40 12:40 92 108
Silva 13:42 14:00 102 120
jamesah 13:46 13:41 99 116
tilbee 13:49 10:09 73 85
Ben Staveley 14:08 12:59 91 107
Groucho 14:16 14:18 100 117
qieduan 14:28 12:33 86 101
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:35 12:03 82 96
David Crooks dcrooks 14:37 17:00 116 136
Tibthorpe 14:43 09:22 63 74
grape 15:04 17:37 116 136
tunflog 15:07 17:35 116 136
gabrojak 15:16 15:42 102 120
phthisis 15:52 20:12 127 149
Squallaby 15:59 16:57 106 124
Looch 16:01 16:28 102 120
johninterred Johninterred 16:03 10:23 64 75
Golvellius 16:06 20:45 128 150
Aloysius 16:15 16:11 99 116
oshinmark 16:16 11:16 69 81
cyrillic 16:29 15:57 96 112
franceslc11 16:55 13:08 77 90
Pootle Pootle 17:09 13:46 80 94
ajcauk1 17:10 20:02 116 136
alexh 17:17 17:28 101 118
zinzan 17:22 18:03 103 121
mrsbateman 17:27 15:33 89 104
LJCN 17:36 17:20 98 115
LouWeed LouWeed 17:41 16:19 92 108
Craven 17:43 17:25 98 115
RobR RobR 17:52 14:34 81 95
GMcD 17:54 13:09 73 85
gsriordan52 17:55 23:48 132 155
CentralLine CentralLine 18:17 13:40 74 87
Richard Bull 18:19 07:29 40 47
Hamish.S 18:45 13:56 74 87
Semillon 18:45 17:26 92 108
Achernar 18:55 15:27 81 95
pterodactyl 19:18 23:25 121 142
andrewlake 19:19 17:59 93 109
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:42 14:49 75 88
Ease This Jam 19:46 14:50 75 88
uvofiz 19:48 18:46 94 110
Foozler 20:20 19:36 96 112
Zander 20:20 21:31 105 123
Crossiant 20:22 18:55 92 108
Terrier 20:40 18:29 89 104
barracuda barracuda 20:45 19:18 93 109
annbrew 21:24 19:35 91 107
James P Special_bitter 21:59 17:07 77 90
sampson 22:09 19:57 90 105
pc8 22:32 17:28 77 90
brian.mcnamara 22:33 18:00 79 92
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:06 23:08 100 117
endafk 23:09 19:21 83 97
crosswordian 23:15 17:37 75 88
squark 23:45 18:14 76 89
goblin 23:47 22:02 92 108
dec 24:12 18:10 75 88
Jeeves 24:19 19:30 80 94
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 24:25 25:07 102 120
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:46 21:53 88 103
Deane Short Deane Short 25:18 13:07 51 60
timbo 25:30 24:58 97 114
FrameShift 25:35 20:00 78 91
Corymbia Corymbia 25:36 32:57 128 150
stainl665 25:46 27:28 106 124
cmcnsmith 26:30 22:18 84 98
Fidelio 26:31 20:40 77 90
Waterloo 26:37 22:33 84 98
1234 26:45 22:15 83 97
LeyGal 26:48 18:09 67 78
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:25 24:53 90 105
Tudds 27:53 21:10 75 88
Crippens1 28:46 22:18 77 90
jimancliffe 29:07 29:20 100 117
nekabue 29:08 40:32 139 163
gbestanley 30:02 34:57 116 136
suethepotterer 30:55 29:11 94 110
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:23 30:26 96 112
Lloyd 31:32 28:47 91 107
koro kororareka 31:33 40:12 127 149
JoeyC 31:33 24:14 76 89
medodd 31:38 30:02 94 110
boltonwanderer 31:39 31:00 97 114
ulaca ulaca 32:13 31:35 98 115
Cookincats 32:47 29:42 90 105
dosbarth 33:11 36:19 109 128
Jcal 33:32 29:06 86 101
Mike Harper Mike Harper 33:32 25:52 77 90
DanSolo 35:00 29:49 85 100
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:50 30:46 83 97
starstruck starstruck_au 37:48 23:17 61 71
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 42:35 26:58 63 74
JGP 42:36 27:03 63 74
empty 42:43 36:21 85 100
Maggot 43:25 28:19 65 76
tyrotim tyrotim 43:31 41:26 95 111
Shushannah 44:31 41:42 93 109
MartinP MartinP1 45:23 31:55 70 82
Bertiethethird 50:40 69:31 137 161
Ron's mum 54:51 118:42 216 254

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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