Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28161

Date 15 December 2021
Number 28161
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 61
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 17
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28161

* 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 04:54 03:24 69 113
Mikemon 05:12 06:03 116 190
Nathan Panning 06:31 03:23 51 83
Jason 06:33 04:09 63 103
Diskus 07:03 04:12 59 96
edwards.robert1 07:05 06:38 93 152
verlaine Verlaine 07:07 07:23 103 168
mistigris 07:44 04:42 60 98
aphis99 aphis99 07:49 06:43 85 139
lili 08:19 03:51 46 75
Midas 08:49 07:08 80 131
Paul Gilbert 08:49 04:54 55 90
richard 09:17 05:42 61 100
asaldanha 09:24 05:08 54 88
chindit 09:42 07:40 79 129
boulemiche 10:03 07:26 73 119
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:28 08:34 81 132
trux trux20 10:36 07:13 68 111
chriswords 10:42 07:22 68 111
lickert 10:45 05:11 48 78
jimpen 10:46 06:58 64 104
Kinghedger 10:57 06:29 59 96
neilr neilr 11:48 06:55 58 95
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:10 06:53 56 91
keriothe_ keriothe 12:14 06:37 54 88
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:50 07:08 55 90
HenryBW 12:59 07:56 61 100
p.wild 13:02 09:19 71 116
Stavros Stavrolex 13:02 07:36 58 95
Sheapey Sheapey 13:10 11:07 84 137
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:22 13:52 103 168
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:31 06:20 46 75
John Walsh 13:37 11:45 86 140
tilbee 13:39 07:01 51 83
xyster 13:46 09:17 67 109
Ben Staveley 13:48 08:28 61 100
Silva 13:51 07:49 56 91
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:55 07:47 55 90
Malcj malcj 13:56 14:55 107 175
Tibthorpe 14:01 06:59 49 80
jamesah 14:05 10:35 75 122
Groucho 14:05 11:13 79 129
Spur58 14:11 11:17 79 129
d.middleton 14:13 09:09 64 104
SimonB 14:25 10:43 74 121
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:27 10:15 70 114
David Crooks dcrooks 14:42 09:38 65 106
tunflog 14:53 13:40 91 149
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 15:28 08:42 56 91
phthisis 15:30 09:57 64 104
Looch 15:31 08:14 53 86
grape 15:33 13:34 87 142
Paul Bacon 15:37 11:14 71 116
gabrojak 15:45 11:44 74 121
Golvellius 15:58 11:53 74 121
johninterred Johninterred 16:02 10:23 64 104
franceslc11 16:16 08:59 55 90
Squallaby 16:24 09:17 56 91
alexh 16:32 13:58 84 137
MK76 16:48 13:29 80 131
annelambirth 16:51 10:09 60 98
cyrillic 16:54 08:59 53 86
njnclarke 16:54 07:12 42 68
mikegrocott 17:21 10:09 58 95
ajcauk1 17:23 15:12 87 142
LJCN 17:25 10:13 58 95
tapbarker 17:38 08:48 49 80
Craven 17:42 16:10 91 149
LouWeed LouWeed 17:58 13:12 73 119
wyn.dil 18:01 16:03 89 145
jonathan.leather 18:08 16:15 89 145
Hamish.S 18:20 11:15 61 100
Pete_Hartley 18:30 14:57 80 131
robinh 18:48 10:36 56 91
gsriordan52 18:58 10:57 57 93
Zander 19:19 16:26 85 139
Ease This Jam 19:20 10:44 55 90
Semillon 19:29 10:39 54 88
Zabadak (zabadak2) 19:31 16:44 85 139
Colin2355 19:39 12:21 62 101
sue.cresswell 19:56 13:42 68 111
Crossiant 20:22 13:45 67 109
Deane Short Deane Short 20:26 10:43 52 85
John Arnold 21:06 11:19 53 86
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:11 14:10 66 108
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 21:33 10:56 50 81
george.garlick 21:43 11:55 54 88
KET 21:47 14:23 66 108
Yatton50 21:52 27:23 125 204
pc8 22:01 14:26 65 106
James P Special_bitter 22:25 21:34 96 157
endafk 22:35 10:32 46 75
alwsn8 22:51 13:55 60 98
crosswordian 23:00 14:47 64 104
FrameShift 23:34 32:09 136 222
goblin 23:40 22:58 97 159
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:46 15:56 64 104
cmcnsmith 25:02 18:52 75 122
stainl665 25:29 18:37 73 119
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 25:48 23:55 92 150
Waterloo 26:13 14:02 53 86
Tudds 26:21 15:57 60 98
pph22 26:24 16:25 62 101
1234 26:49 12:13 45 73
david_ch 27:03 17:50 65 106
Pauline Minter 27:19 16:53 61 100
Crippens1 27:20 18:07 66 108
chris661554 27:30 15:19 55 90
jimancliffe 28:31 14:57 52 85
nekabue 28:31 26:14 91 149
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:56 16:48 58 95
Curarist Curarist 29:02 23:24 80 131
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 29:14 19:00 64 104
medodd 29:32 21:56 74 121
boltonwanderer 31:47 21:00 66 108
klamery4 31:55 31:42 99 162
Mike Harper Mike Harper 32:13 10:29 32 52
gbestanley 32:15 21:39 67 109
wimpoldo 32:57 20:57 63 103
Cookincats 33:11 18:02 54 88
Word Psmith wordpsmith 33:12 21:45 65 106
Onelug 33:41 19:43 58 95
Dr_Bob 33:55 33:16 98 160
HanS 34:08 30:47 90 147
starstruck starstruck_au 36:26 22:20 61 100
andrewmr 37:38 19:21 51 83
kapietro kapietro 37:53 33:23 88 144
JGP 39:53 16:24 41 67
infinitejest 41:34 33:50 81 132
tyrotim tyrotim 41:59 30:49 73 119
Rookie 42:31 33:42 79 129
MartinP MartinP1 43:37 31:24 71 116
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 44:11 32:12 72 118
jackk.larg 47:15 30:41 64 104

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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