Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28123

Date 01 November 2021
Number 28123
Day of week Monday
NITCH 94
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 12
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28123

* 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 06:25 07:47 121 128
Jason 06:35 06:04 92 97
Diskus 07:01 07:03 100 106
verlaine Verlaine 07:04 05:24 76 80
edwards.robert1 07:08 06:16 87 92
mistigris 07:40 07:23 96 102
aphis99 aphis99 07:53 09:21 118 125
hilarym 08:10 09:33 116 123
lili 08:20 05:14 62 65
Paul Gilbert 08:43 08:07 93 98
Midas 08:52 10:05 113 120
asaldanha 09:19 13:46 147 156
richard 09:42 07:25 76 80
chindit 09:52 07:19 74 78
boulemiche 10:12 11:10 109 115
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:14 11:03 107 113
scrabbler 10:15 14:50 144 153
chriswords 10:39 11:17 105 111
jimpen 10:47 10:50 100 106
Kinghedger 10:54 11:23 104 110
trux trux20 10:57 09:27 86 91
tiggis 11:53 12:12 102 108
keriothe_ keriothe 12:07 13:40 112 119
fshephe 12:20 10:21 83 88
Heyesey 12:25 11:49 95 101
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:26 16:58 136 144
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:58 13:50 106 112
HenryBW 13:00 15:59 122 129
p.wild 13:02 13:17 101 107
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:02 12:32 96 102
Stavros Stavrolex 13:12 08:02 60 63
SimonAnthony 13:13 11:18 85 90
Sheapey Sheapey 13:18 12:39 95 101
xyster 13:30 11:33 85 90
Spur58 13:33 16:38 122 129
tilbee 13:47 11:09 80 85
Silva 13:47 12:26 90 95
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:48 14:22 104 110
March (JeffCollins) mch1 14:04 17:40 125 132
Groucho 14:08 14:14 100 106
Ben Staveley 14:12 12:33 88 93
qieduan 14:17 18:08 126 134
Tibthorpe 14:18 20:35 143 152
canismiser 14:32 10:29 72 76
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:43 14:27 98 104
David Crooks dcrooks 14:43 17:54 121 128
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:07 18:45 124 131
Aloysius 15:28 13:30 87 92
Looch 15:35 16:36 106 112
gabrojak 15:37 14:36 93 98
Squallaby 16:19 16:00 98 104
johninterred Johninterred 16:21 15:19 93 98
cyrillic 16:33 14:48 89 94
Pootle Pootle 16:41 11:34 69 73
alexh 16:48 18:30 110 117
jimwetzler 17:05 25:43 150 159
zinzan 17:24 13:30 77 81
LJCN 17:28 18:41 106 112
MK76 17:37 17:39 100 106
tapbarker 17:43 13:32 76 80
Craven 17:45 15:42 88 93
GMcD 17:53 17:00 95 101
Pete_Hartley 18:03 21:52 121 128
LouWeed LouWeed 18:06 12:33 69 73
RobR RobR 18:12 11:00 60 63
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:21 22:07 120 127
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:30 19:26 105 111
fuzz 18:43 17:07 91 96
robinh 19:03 12:54 67 71
Semillon 19:09 19:05 99 105
Achernar 19:12 14:36 76 80
andrewlake 19:17 21:18 110 117
Colin2355 19:19 16:43 86 91
Zander 19:28 11:49 60 63
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:48 26:40 134 142
Foozler 19:49 19:17 97 103
Crossiant 20:13 20:28 101 107
annbrew 20:33 19:49 96 102
John Arnold 20:44 21:48 105 111
barracuda barracuda 20:46 17:55 86 91
pc8 22:31 18:04 80 85
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 23:00 14:21 62 65
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:09 25:47 111 118
crosswordian 23:11 18:19 79 84
squark 23:26 15:25 65 69
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:28 30:46 125 132
Nangle 24:30 20:53 85 90
Jeeves 24:34 20:20 82 87
MartianAlien 24:55 22:42 91 96
Corymbia Corymbia 25:16 26:55 106 112
paul.whitehouse69 25:16 20:08 79 84
timbo 25:41 25:44 100 106
FrameShift 26:08 14:53 56 59
1234 26:47 32:07 119 126
david_ch 27:03 38:20 141 150
pph22 27:13 28:31 104 110
Tudds 27:17 17:13 63 67
jimancliffe 27:22 35:02 128 136
Mkgnao Mkgnao 27:31 24:05 87 92
Pauline Minter 28:10 25:30 90 95
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:11 38:31 136 144
chris661554 28:24 48:42 171 181
nekabue 28:43 27:25 95 101
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 29:24 30:03 102 108
suethepotterer 29:38 30:39 103 109
medodd 30:11 36:56 122 129
DanSolo 30:40 19:52 64 68
Curarist Curarist 31:03 19:17 62 65
gbestanley 31:53 32:13 101 107
koro kororareka 32:20 48:10 148 157
boltonwanderer 32:25 31:00 95 101
Lloyd 32:30 54:49 168 178
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:44 23:50 72 76
ulaca ulaca 33:34 41:18 123 130
Gussie 33:39 40:02 118 125
wimpoldo 34:30 27:40 80 85
Jadebee 35:24 25:24 71 75
BertieVII 35:42 32:07 89 94
branch branch 35:51 25:15 70 74
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:09 26:38 73 77
starstruck starstruck_au 37:07 51:50 139 147
kapietro kapietro 40:07 42:49 106 112
Rookie 42:33 49:40 116 123
marp 43:44 34:20 78 82
jackk.larg 51:32 42:40 82 87

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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