Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28589

Date 28 April 2023
Number 28589
Day of week Friday
NITCH 74
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28589

* 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 04:14 03:30 82 110
Nathan Panning 05:44 04:02 70 94
Jason 06:23 05:37 87 117
Magoo 06:28 04:20 67 90
Diskus 06:59 05:00 71 95
verlaine Verlaine 07:01 04:36 65 87
hilarym 07:29 05:31 73 98
lili 07:30 06:22 84 113
aphis99 aphis99 07:38 05:26 71 95
cmjhutton 08:01 05:03 62 83
asaldanha 08:55 06:55 77 104
boulemiche 09:25 09:08 96 129
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:09 08:18 81 109
edwards.robert1 10:16 17:17 168 227
lickert 10:37 09:19 87 117
scrabbler 10:43 09:05 84 113
Kinghedger 10:45 08:31 79 106
AlanS 10:48 10:45 99 133
chriswords 10:55 09:25 86 116
jimpen 10:58 10:23 94 127
Peter Lewiston 11:22 03:02 26 35
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:29 07:59 69 93
markdobell 11:43 10:48 92 124
fshephe 12:01 09:16 77 104
neilr neilr 12:10 11:41 96 129
Sheapey Sheapey 12:12 06:27 52 70
David Crooks dcrooks 12:24 11:49 95 128
Silva 12:31 07:42 61 82
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:33 07:27 59 79
JimboFS 12:43 08:00 62 83
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:56 09:35 74 100
jonathan.leather 12:59 12:55 99 133
Stavros Stavrolex 13:04 11:07 85 114
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:20 12:04 90 121
d.middleton 13:25 12:27 92 124
JezWoolfrey 13:45 13:12 96 129
Finzi 13:47 11:35 84 113
Paul Bacon 13:48 12:50 92 124
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:57 09:54 70 94
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:13 09:47 68 91
jamesah 14:14 11:12 78 105
Ben Staveley 14:14 12:35 88 118
LouWeed LouWeed 14:16 10:31 73 98
Aloysius 14:18 12:56 90 121
michaelbell53 14:25 13:53 96 129
Peponi13 14:29 14:09 97 131
grape 14:33 13:20 91 122
Tibthorpe 14:36 09:01 61 82
Groucho 14:46 16:30 111 150
alexh 15:14 13:20 87 117
johninterred Johninterred 15:15 12:10 79 106
franceslc11 15:22 11:23 74 100
Achernar 15:29 14:00 90 121
phthisis 15:31 13:12 85 114
Traveler [sic] 15:35 11:50 75 101
Semillon 15:38 10:10 65 87
john.marshall 15:40 11:08 71 95
CentralLine CentralLine 15:59 10:53 68 91
gabrojak 16:02 12:56 80 108
Looch 16:03 13:51 86 116
tapbarker 16:12 08:42 53 71
Pootle Pootle 16:13 09:38 59 79
gsriordan52 16:14 17:36 108 145
robinh 16:19 12:46 78 105
andrewlake 16:21 11:49 72 97
Ease This Jam 16:21 12:00 73 98
MK76 16:38 11:42 70 94
Squallaby 16:39 09:37 57 77
Craven 16:51 14:52 88 118
DunPangolin 17:16 14:41 85 114
Eddddddd 17:24 10:15 58 78
ajcauk1 17:29 17:30 100 135
Crossiant 17:43 11:11 63 85
GMcD 17:46 14:26 81 109
BlackburnRover 17:54 13:55 77 104
Colin2355 18:11 16:17 89 120
Zander 18:53 15:05 79 106
endafk 19:20 14:04 72 97
Jeremy S 19:35 18:40 95 128
martinede 19:42 16:30 83 112
cmcnsmith 19:48 12:48 64 86
Hamish.S 20:00 10:22 51 68
cyrillic 20:00 19:58 99 133
John Arnold 20:08 21:44 107 144
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:19 18:44 92 124
Cookincats 21:01 19:46 94 127
Waterloo 21:10 18:56 89 120
barracuda barracuda 21:16 14:56 70 94
James P Special_bitter 21:30 15:15 70 94
David Bourne 21:34 12:24 57 77
Nangle 21:45 18:31 85 114
npweston 21:50 13:23 61 82
crosswordian 21:53 16:54 77 104
Jagsfan1971 21:58 12:26 56 75
LeyGal 22:11 19:19 87 117
dec 22:42 21:48 96 129
brian.mcnamara 22:50 21:32 94 127
DianeRS 22:53 18:20 80 108
goblin 23:06 20:40 89 120
MartianAlien 23:28 20:22 86 116
Tudds 23:32 15:06 64 86
Corymbia Corymbia 24:16 20:35 84 113
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:17 19:24 79 106
1234 24:23 23:12 95 128
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 21:13 85 114
suethepotterer 25:12 28:30 113 152
Curarist Curarist 25:20 21:27 84 113
NAPASAI napasai 25:26 16:13 63 85
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:39 21:13 82 110
chris661554 25:41 21:18 82 110
Fidelio 25:46 18:50 73 98
Crippens1 25:58 23:36 90 121
Rowleyrag 26:04 27:43 106 143
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:09 17:31 66 89
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 26:19 11:14 42 56
Umpire 26:38 18:13 68 91
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:44 20:27 76 102
ulaca ulaca 26:58 27:20 101 136
nekabue 27:26 16:43 60 81
JoeyC 27:52 19:38 70 94
Deezzaa Deezzaa 28:20 24:02 84 113
JE59 28:30 15:13 53 71
timbo 28:51 23:48 82 110
Yatton50 29:02 21:20 73 98
infinitejest 29:44 29:21 98 132
Gussie 30:02 16:22 54 72
gbestanley 30:40 28:01 91 122
BertieVII 31:56 19:03 59 79
boltonwanderer 31:56 28:00 87 117
koro kororareka 31:57 28:50 90 121
Lloyd 34:35 24:45 71 95
Rookie 35:38 25:25 71 95
HanS 35:47 19:46 55 74
symbenall2 35:50 32:00 89 120
Dalai Farmer 35:55 29:01 80 108
starstruck starstruck_au 35:56 22:26 62 83
dosbarth 36:31 20:18 55 74
Maggot 36:33 26:07 71 95
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:02 39:15 105 141
kapietro kapietro 37:42 25:12 66 89
tyrotim tyrotim 38:21 29:00 75 101
Shushannah 41:13 34:10 82 110
jackk.larg 42:05 25:02 59 79
empty 42:12 45:46 108 145
paulmcl paulmcl 42:49 78:08 182 245
Cryptique 43:17 15:52 36 48
MartinP MartinP1 43:51 34:21 78 105
CoxBurglar coxburglar 44:56 24:29 54 72
Steve Wood 50:22 30:45 61 82
profsjpayne 53:06 13:56 26 35
Rapscallions 53:31 32:41 61 82
kjbr 56:23 37:57 67 90

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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