Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28273

Date 25 April 2022
Number 28273
Day of week Monday
NITCH 74
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 9
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28273

* 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 05:22 04:10 77 104
Magoo 06:18 05:21 84 113
Jason 06:48 04:30 66 89
edwards.robert1 07:10 07:22 102 137
mistigris 07:43 05:02 65 87
aphis99 aphis99 07:53 04:15 53 71
verlaine Verlaine 07:56 05:50 73 98
lili 08:29 05:35 65 87
Paul Gilbert 08:44 04:50 55 74
richard 09:32 06:00 62 83
asaldanha 09:35 09:10 95 128
chriswords 10:22 10:58 105 141
chindit 10:33 07:10 67 90
scrabbler 10:33 06:54 65 87
jimpen 10:58 09:41 88 118
Kinghedger 11:17 10:09 89 120
glheard glh 11:45 08:12 69 93
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:47 07:48 66 89
ChuckB 12:25 08:46 70 94
xyster 12:25 06:47 54 72
keriothe_ keriothe 12:32 12:39 100 135
neilr neilr 12:36 09:44 77 104
SimonAnthony 12:38 09:28 74 100
fshephe 12:46 11:30 90 121
Sheapey Sheapey 12:50 08:46 68 91
Heyesey 12:56 16:05 124 167
HenryBW 13:00 08:04 62 83
Finzi 13:02 10:57 84 113
miked1961 13:07 11:18 86 116
tilbee 13:10 06:26 48 64
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 13:12 12:07 91 122
Stavros Stavrolex 13:14 09:05 68 91
markdobell 13:16 14:46 111 150
Sue Sweeper 13:23 12:03 90 121
aphasic 13:27 09:47 72 97
Groucho 13:33 11:11 82 110
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:38 12:55 94 127
John Walsh 13:43 13:26 97 131
TB22 13:49 07:50 56 75
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:49 11:23 82 110
Ben Staveley 14:00 09:13 65 87
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:01 09:53 70 94
Silva 14:08 14:03 99 133
JimboFS 14:28 13:13 91 122
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:39 10:25 71 95
jamesah 14:42 12:54 87 117
David Crooks dcrooks 14:46 10:50 73 98
Paul Bacon 15:02 15:44 104 140
Tibthorpe 15:03 11:47 78 105
gabrojak 15:20 13:25 87 117
Crucifer Crucifer 15:33 16:37 106 143
Looch 15:52 13:46 86 116
canismiser 15:59 14:34 91 122
franceslc11 15:59 12:43 79 106
phthisis 16:28 11:36 70 94
Pootle Pootle 16:34 21:55 132 178
annelambirth 16:34 16:03 96 129
LouWeed LouWeed 16:39 13:48 82 110
njnclarke 16:42 17:04 102 137
Squallaby 17:04 12:51 75 101
Deane Short Deane Short 17:10 14:20 83 112
LJCN 17:30 14:41 83 112
Craven 17:32 15:46 89 120
jaraab 17:42 12:13 69 93
wyn.dil 17:44 14:46 83 112
tapbarker 17:46 18:21 103 139
cyrillic 17:50 13:19 74 100
CentralLine CentralLine 18:11 14:05 77 104
Valance 18:12 15:44 86 116
robinh 18:13 15:08 83 112
Semillon 18:21 17:04 93 125
Ease This Jam 18:42 17:12 91 122
GMcD 18:46 10:16 54 72
gsriordan52 18:53 10:25 55 74
andrewlake 19:06 08:16 43 58
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 19:23 12:16 63 85
Hamish.S 19:24 26:08 134 181
Achernar 19:38 17:05 87 117
pterodactyl 19:45 13:09 66 89
Colin2355 19:48 12:15 61 82
Foozler 19:54 16:27 82 110
annbrew 20:16 16:49 82 110
uvofiz 20:29 13:12 64 86
Solver52 20:44 22:31 108 145
Zabadak (zabadak2) 20:57 14:04 67 90
FraserH 21:08 19:20 91 122
Andrew Whiffin 21:23 16:05 75 101
endafk 21:37 17:43 81 109
squark 21:51 12:12 55 74
David Bourne 21:56 10:07 46 62
pc8 21:57 14:41 66 89
Jagsfan1971 21:59 17:47 80 108
crosswordian 22:30 19:34 86 116
barracuda barracuda 22:51 23:07 101 136
FrameShift 22:56 16:01 69 93
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 23:23 14:26 61 82
dec 23:23 25:30 109 147
goblin 23:52 14:51 62 83
James P Special_bitter 23:54 12:45 53 71
Corymbia Corymbia 25:16 26:20 104 140
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:44 21:24 83 112
Tudds 26:14 18:24 70 94
Pauline Minter 26:22 21:08 80 108
Crippens1 26:49 22:19 83 112
klamery4 26:51 34:35 128 172
suethepotterer 27:13 29:38 108 145
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:49 21:05 75 101
Rowleyrag 28:37 23:37 82 110
chris661554 29:13 24:41 84 113
JoeyC 29:29 24:17 82 110
Jadebee 29:29 26:19 89 120
nekabue 29:43 38:44 130 175
Onelug 29:47 24:24 81 109
Curarist Curarist 29:51 20:49 69 93
Vagans 30:56 21:05 68 91
Big Nug 31:05 28:01 90 121
tony the butcher montana 32:04 33:26 104 140
ulaca ulaca 32:38 19:49 60 81
HanS 33:22 55:27 166 224
gbestanley 33:26 29:25 87 117
boltonwanderer 33:36 32:00 95 128
Menelaus 33:43 43:07 127 171
koro kororareka 33:47 30:34 90 121
phmfantom phmfantom 33:57 33:43 99 133
JGP 33:59 23:11 68 91
dosbarth 34:30 37:24 108 145
Lloyd 36:19 35:01 96 129
BertieVII 38:43 24:31 63 85
starstruck starstruck_au 39:10 30:08 76 102
marp 40:50 35:34 87 117
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 43:55 25:37 58 78
MartinP MartinP1 45:48 43:28 94 127
alexngbr 50:32 38:41 76 102
jackk.larg 52:20 33:12 63 85
Masha 58:59 88:41 150 202

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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