Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28066

Date 26 August 2021
Number 28066
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 78
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 12
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28066

* 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 03:49 04:04 106 135
mohn mohn2 04:48 04:16 88 112
Mikemon 05:14 04:30 85 108
Nathan Panning 06:21 06:05 95 121
Jason 06:35 05:36 85 108
edwards.robert1 06:55 09:09 132 169
verlaine Verlaine 07:09 04:29 62 79
mistigris 07:32 06:05 80 102
mauefw Mauefw 07:40 05:18 69 88
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 09:24 120 153
Diskus 07:49 05:44 73 93
hilarym 08:07 07:12 88 112
lili 08:20 07:30 90 115
Paul Gilbert 08:47 04:41 53 67
Midas 08:54 06:50 76 97
asaldanha 09:08 12:09 133 170
chindit 09:41 06:52 70 89
boulemiche 09:48 12:12 124 158
scrabbler 10:19 09:19 90 115
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:27 08:25 80 102
AlanS 10:39 08:18 77 98
lickert 10:49 09:38 89 114
Kinghedger 10:50 07:45 71 91
jimpen 10:52 10:38 97 124
glheard glh 11:09 09:13 82 105
robertL 12:01 15:02 125 160
ChuckB 12:06 12:13 100 128
Sue Sweeper 12:09 09:49 80 102
keriothe_ keriothe 12:30 07:29 59 75
fshephe 12:43 11:13 88 112
aphasic 12:46 12:00 93 119
p.wild 12:49 10:39 83 106
SimonAnthony 12:53 07:54 61 78
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:57 09:00 69 88
xyster 13:07 14:18 109 139
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 08:17 62 79
Sheapey Sheapey 13:17 10:00 75 96
Heyesey 13:20 06:12 46 58
Malcj malcj 13:29 11:16 83 106
John Walsh 13:40 14:42 107 137
Silva 13:42 11:21 82 105
jamesah 13:46 10:52 78 100
tilbee 13:49 14:28 104 133
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:56 13:22 95 121
Groucho 14:16 14:56 104 133
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:23 09:18 64 82
qieduan 14:28 14:40 101 129
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:35 11:07 76 97
tunflog 15:07 15:04 99 126
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:39 11:02 70 89
phthisis 15:52 14:38 92 117
Squallaby 15:59 16:14 101 129
Looch 16:01 18:47 117 150
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 16:02 07:36 47 60
njnclarke 16:02 13:35 84 107
johninterred Johninterred 16:03 17:07 106 135
Golvellius 16:06 15:44 97 124
cyrillic 16:29 14:13 86 110
franceslc11 16:55 15:31 91 116
Pootle Pootle 17:09 08:44 50 64
ajcauk1 17:10 17:39 102 130
alexh 17:17 13:16 76 97
tapbarker 17:18 14:49 85 108
zinzan 17:22 14:16 82 105
Craven 17:43 17:18 97 124
RobR RobR 17:52 16:15 90 115
GMcD 17:54 13:05 73 93
gsriordan52 17:55 12:06 67 85
rupe 18:13 12:33 68 87
CentralLine CentralLine 18:17 16:18 89 114
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:18 21:03 115 147
Richard Bull 18:19 07:06 38 48
wyn.dil 18:24 18:48 102 130
Semillon 18:45 09:23 50 64
Achernar 18:55 12:59 68 87
jonathan.leather 19:06 11:08 58 74
pterodactyl 19:18 20:21 105 134
andrewlake 19:19 13:18 68 87
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:42 12:01 60 76
Foozler 20:20 22:02 108 138
barracuda barracuda 20:45 26:48 129 165
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 21:46 13:38 62 79
sampson 22:09 21:37 97 124
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:11 22:19 100 128
brian.mcnamara 22:33 22:07 98 125
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:06 23:13 100 128
crosswordian 23:15 23:29 101 129
goblin 23:47 25:22 106 135
dec 24:12 19:03 78 100
zythum 24:28 18:48 76 97
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:46 33:41 136 174
Nangle 25:09 18:42 74 94
FrameShift 25:35 11:04 43 55
Fidelio 26:31 15:58 60 76
Waterloo 26:37 24:05 90 115
Manveru 26:46 30:56 115 147
LeyGal 26:48 24:04 89 114
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:46 32:42 117 150
Tudds 27:53 17:21 62 79
Crippens1 28:46 16:03 55 70
Menelaus 28:55 22:37 78 100
nekabue 29:08 20:28 70 89
chris661554 29:13 24:22 83 106
Pauline Minter 29:15 18:07 61 78
rosselliot 30:15 28:00 92 117
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 31:23 25:26 81 103
Lloyd 31:32 29:00 91 116
JoeyC 31:33 29:50 94 120
koro kororareka 31:33 26:35 84 107
medodd 31:38 29:41 93 119
boltonwanderer 31:39 39:00 123 157
Curarist Curarist 31:42 19:53 62 79
ulaca ulaca 32:13 28:13 87 111
wimpoldo 32:49 37:08 113 144
dosbarth 33:11 36:01 108 138
Vagans 33:18 24:47 74 94
FelicityTT 34:12 20:52 61 78
HanS 35:26 32:24 91 116
starstruck starstruck_au 37:48 41:18 109 139
Ronnie 40:07 42:53 106 135
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 42:35 39:20 92 117
Maggot 43:25 32:52 75 96
Shushannah 44:31 37:46 84 107
MartinP MartinP1 45:23 28:09 62 79
Bertiethethird 50:40 28:28 56 71
Ron's mum 54:51 35:54 65 83

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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