Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28615

Date 29 May 2023
Number 28615
Day of week Monday
NITCH 95
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28615

* 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 05:29 07:09 130 136
verlaine Verlaine 06:50 07:06 103 108
Diskus 06:55 06:10 89 93
Paul Gilbert 07:23 15:54 215 226
aphis99 aphis99 07:31 06:30 86 90
lili 07:34 09:19 123 129
asaldanha 08:55 09:41 108 113
boulemiche 09:14 10:49 117 123
chindit 09:56 09:36 96 101
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:20 10:40 103 108
Kinghedger 10:25 11:01 105 110
lickert 10:26 12:22 118 124
scrabbler 10:34 10:32 99 104
trux trux20 10:45 15:01 139 146
glheard glh 10:51 07:47 71 74
chriswords 11:00 09:59 90 94
edwards.robert1 11:11 11:05 99 104
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:23 08:25 73 76
miked1961 11:27 16:21 142 149
andy 11:34 14:21 124 130
Heyesey 11:36 13:10 113 118
markdobell 11:40 13:12 113 118
Deane Short Deane Short 11:48 10:00 84 88
Sheapey Sheapey 12:09 11:20 93 97
David Crooks dcrooks 12:11 13:14 108 113
tilbee 12:31 09:27 75 78
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:32 11:50 94 98
aphasic 12:37 14:47 117 123
JimboFS 12:44 13:28 105 110
Silva 12:45 15:48 123 129
Mike Mansbridge 13:11 16:31 125 131
Stavros Stavrolex 13:26 23:47 177 186
d.middleton 13:32 13:28 99 104
jonathan.leather 13:48 06:24 46 48
Finzi 13:57 16:20 117 123
LouWeed LouWeed 13:58 12:18 88 92
Ben Staveley 14:20 21:57 153 161
jamesah 14:21 14:34 101 106
SimonAnthony 14:22 12:48 89 93
michaelbell53 14:28 15:00 103 108
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:34 16:04 110 115
Tibthorpe 14:45 09:29 64 67
Groucho 14:52 13:02 87 91
CentralLine CentralLine 15:03 14:20 95 100
franceslc11 15:06 15:51 104 109
phthisis 15:10 17:02 112 117
alexh 15:17 15:26 100 105
Semillon 15:18 17:15 112 117
johninterred Johninterred 15:21 15:55 103 108
gabrojak 15:23 16:28 107 112
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:27 11:13 72 75
Achernar 15:30 15:00 96 101
Ease This Jam 15:30 12:08 78 82
john.marshall 15:30 11:52 76 80
AndyR 15:31 14:57 96 101
Squallaby 16:01 17:06 106 111
Jim Willis 16:03 10:40 66 69
george.plumbly 16:06 16:06 100 105
BlackburnRover 16:07 18:07 112 117
Pootle Pootle 16:08 21:07 130 136
robinh 16:09 17:35 108 113
andrewlake 16:19 23:39 144 151
Valance 16:46 19:42 117 123
Craven 17:09 17:27 101 106
ajcauk1 17:21 16:44 96 101
rupes 17:33 12:22 70 73
LJCN 17:36 13:22 75 78
Ludo 17:47 13:54 78 82
DunPangolin 17:48 13:42 76 80
Colin2355 17:51 17:50 99 104
GMcD 17:55 18:55 105 110
Foozler 18:26 19:57 108 113
uvofiz 18:33 20:38 111 116
Wyn Lewis Wyn Lewis 18:34 18:36 100 105
OliviaRhineb oliviarhinebeck 18:42 17:22 92 96
Solver52 18:46 16:27 87 91
pterodactyl 18:46 21:20 113 118
Zander 18:52 17:00 90 94
cath23 19:24 15:25 79 83
Andrew Whiffin 19:34 22:08 113 118
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 19:52 18:14 91 95
endafk 19:55 14:44 73 76
John Arnold 20:05 22:08 110 115
cyrillic 20:47 29:56 144 151
LeyGal 20:52 20:31 98 103
pc8 20:59 22:45 108 113
Jagsfan1971 21:25 23:30 109 114
george.garlick 21:50 19:25 88 92
Waterloo 21:51 19:48 90 94
barracuda barracuda 21:54 16:51 76 80
Nangle 22:14 21:56 98 103
Umpire 22:19 22:12 99 104
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 22:59 29:57 130 136
docg 23:02 27:33 119 125
UisceTe 23:09 25:50 111 116
DianeRS 23:10 20:33 88 92
goblin 23:16 29:38 127 133
squark 23:29 25:24 108 113
Tudds 23:33 27:08 115 121
Curarist Curarist 23:57 23:02 96 101
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:00 18:06 75 78
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 24:31 23:30 95 100
klamery4 25:13 26:38 105 110
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:18 30:54 122 128
Fidelio 25:21 27:55 110 115
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:26 22:34 85 89
chris661554 26:37 31:07 116 122
ulaca ulaca 26:41 26:26 99 104
nekabue 27:10 24:49 91 95
JoeyC 27:35 22:41 82 86
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:03 27:37 98 103
Deezzaa Deezzaa 28:41 29:24 102 107
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:48 22:46 79 83
Manveru 29:18 28:57 98 103
gbestanley 30:17 29:55 98 103
ChrisBrea 30:27 19:38 64 67
koro kororareka 32:05 42:24 132 138
SK42 32:12 33:55 105 110
pvoller 33:30 30:29 90 94
boltonwanderer 33:57 38:00 111 116
maryht 34:44 29:28 84 88
McBeak McBeak 35:02 22:55 65 68
dosbarth 35:19 28:19 80 84
marp 35:19 31:11 88 92
Maggot 35:26 22:12 62 65
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:31 28:43 80 84
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:16 46:55 129 135
HanS 36:29 38:31 105 110
starstruck starstruck_au 36:31 43:56 120 126
alexngbr 38:14 44:13 115 121
tyrotim tyrotim 38:26 36:39 95 100
Shushannah 40:17 40:26 100 105
empty 41:51 43:52 104 109
CoxBurglar coxburglar 42:04 75:12 178 187
jackk.larg 42:37 33:36 78 82
MartinP MartinP1 43:53 39:44 90 94
Steve Wood 48:37 35:10 72 75
TonyK 49:11 52:00 105 110
profsjpayne 53:46 66:29 123 129
kjbr 54:49 43:59 80 84

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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