Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28407

Date 28 September 2022
Number 28407
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 74
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28407

* 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 04:49 03:18 68 91
Magoo 05:40 05:13 92 124
Nathan Panning 05:53 03:53 66 89
Jason 06:20 05:31 87 117
Diskus 06:49 03:55 57 77
mistigris 07:01 05:42 81 109
hilarym 07:23 06:20 85 114
verlaine Verlaine 07:33 05:13 69 93
aphis99 aphis99 07:40 06:29 84 113
lili 07:55 04:34 57 77
mauefw Mauefw 08:12 04:03 49 66
asaldanha 08:55 05:33 62 83
trux trux20 08:56 07:37 85 114
richard 08:59 06:31 72 97
boulemiche 09:47 08:23 85 114
scrabbler 09:56 11:39 117 158
AlanS 10:06 08:35 84 113
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:22 06:23 61 82
glheard glh 10:25 09:13 88 118
jimpen 10:31 09:28 90 121
chindit 10:33 09:29 89 120
lickert 10:38 09:00 84 113
Heyesey 11:08 07:07 63 85
keriothe_ keriothe 11:20 09:28 83 112
neilr neilr 11:55 11:38 97 131
tilbee 12:16 10:12 83 112
Stavros Stavrolex 12:19 09:43 78 105
markdobell 12:32 11:02 88 118
Sheapey Sheapey 12:32 09:55 79 106
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:35 09:22 74 100
Secondbass 12:40 10:04 79 106
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:44 06:57 54 72
SimonAnthony 12:50 07:36 59 79
David Crooks dcrooks 12:55 10:37 82 110
Finzi 12:59 10:44 82 110
aphasic 13:07 16:09 123 166
d.middleton 13:08 13:04 99 133
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:10 12:48 97 131
HenryBW 13:12 11:49 89 120
JimboFS 13:12 10:09 76 102
Silva 13:19 07:33 56 75
Ben Staveley 13:19 10:46 80 108
John Walsh 13:22 11:44 87 117
Peponi13 13:26 14:04 104 140
fuzz 14:04 10:15 72 97
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:10 15:27 109 147
jamesah 14:11 15:27 108 145
tunflog 14:14 15:51 111 150
SimonB 14:32 12:16 84 113
Tibthorpe 14:34 10:06 69 93
Achernar 14:41 15:13 103 139
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 14:41 15:10 103 139
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:46 08:54 60 81
Groucho 14:50 15:43 105 141
JezWoolfrey 14:59 13:23 89 120
alexh 15:05 12:30 82 110
canismiser 15:18 11:48 77 104
MK76 15:20 12:08 79 106
gabrojak 15:22 11:16 73 98
johninterred Johninterred 15:31 12:55 83 112
LouWeed LouWeed 15:33 12:28 80 108
rupe 15:49 10:58 69 93
Pootle Pootle 15:58 11:42 73 98
annelambirth 16:09 10:09 62 83
Derek Harrison 16:20 12:08 74 100
andrewlake 16:21 08:54 54 72
CentralLine CentralLine 16:29 11:54 72 97
Semillon 16:37 10:04 60 81
LJCN 16:51 10:52 64 86
Craven 16:56 13:42 80 108
ajcauk1 17:00 16:12 95 128
Crossiant 17:19 11:35 66 89
wyn.dil 17:22 15:33 89 120
Ludo 17:22 11:10 64 86
Valance 17:24 14:26 82 110
DunPangolin 17:31 11:54 67 90
cyrillic 17:57 18:39 103 139
Foozler 18:02 16:44 92 124
GMcD 18:04 19:58 110 148
gsriordan52 18:24 13:55 75 101
endafk 18:26 11:36 62 83
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:30 14:12 76 102
pterodactyl 18:44 14:37 78 105
robinh 18:52 13:15 70 94
monkfish 18:59 14:29 76 102
Hamish.S 19:08 13:12 68 91
annbrew 19:16 16:29 85 114
hugh schofield Leskoffer 19:16 13:29 69 93
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 20:19 11:41 57 77
barracuda barracuda 20:30 19:51 96 129
FrameShift 20:37 07:39 37 50
Cookincats 20:37 12:42 61 82
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:41 19:32 94 127
James P Special_bitter 21:55 11:26 52 70
mjwiseman 21:55 18:11 82 110
george.garlick 22:08 15:21 69 93
KET 22:10 03:57 17 22
squark 22:37 14:35 64 86
cmcnsmith 22:45 12:41 55 74
Nangle 22:52 22:50 99 133
Edprof 22:55 11:25 49 66
goblin 23:06 19:24 83 112
david_ch 23:48 21:20 89 120
Corymbia Corymbia 24:16 12:32 51 68
DanSolo 24:58 14:41 58 78
Rowleyrag 24:58 26:01 104 140
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:01 15:06 60 81
Pauline Minter 25:06 18:03 71 95
Tudds 25:11 16:58 67 90
Yatton50 25:15 24:02 95 128
chris661554 25:59 17:17 66 89
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:07 16:40 63 85
Onelug 26:43 15:57 59 79
Traveler [sic] 26:47 19:41 73 98
Crippens1 28:43 15:29 53 71
nekabue 29:02 16:34 57 77
Jeeves 29:15 15:29 52 70
ulaca ulaca 29:22 18:12 61 82
BertieVII 30:44 34:26 112 151
Mike Harper Mike Harper 30:55 19:40 63 85
JoeyC 31:08 25:50 82 110
boltonwanderer 31:35 24:00 75 101
koro kororareka 31:56 22:11 69 93
gbestanley 32:05 25:00 77 104
Gussie 33:14 17:37 53 71
NAPASAI napasai 33:22 15:32 46 62
dosbarth 33:50 23:52 70 94
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:31 26:15 76 102
HanS 35:17 36:51 104 140
Msimmo 36:53 20:35 55 74
starstruck starstruck_au 37:27 23:40 63 85
BruceJohnston 37:31 25:52 68 91
6098mr 38:24 27:30 71 95
Ron's mum 38:50 29:29 75 101
Maggot 40:32 32:16 79 106
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:53 27:26 67 90
kapietro kapietro 42:03 24:00 57 77
algyw 42:23 37:35 88 118
Rookie 42:29 18:34 43 58
jackk.larg 42:57 33:26 77 104
empty 44:21 25:58 58 78
paulmcl paulmcl 48:58 33:27 68 91
alexngbr 49:53 43:00 86 116
Masha 56:50 48:26 85 114
profsjpayne 58:24 13:51 23 31
kjbr 58:47 43:04 73 98

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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