Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28671

Date 02 August 2023
Number 28671
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 21
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28671

* 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 04:29 04:42 104 116
Nathan Panning 05:40 05:00 88 98
Jason 06:19 05:59 94 105
verlaine Verlaine 06:39 07:54 118 132
Diskus 06:42 06:57 103 115
hilarym 06:54 08:34 124 139
Paul Gilbert 07:14 07:20 101 113
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 05:17 70 78
cmjhutton 07:35 05:15 69 77
lili 07:43 06:43 87 97
asaldanha 08:46 05:29 62 69
boulemiche 08:56 11:33 129 144
richard 09:02 07:27 82 92
chindit 09:34 12:31 130 146
lickert 10:08 07:09 70 78
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:15 08:34 83 93
Kinghedger 10:20 12:21 119 133
AlanS 10:41 12:32 117 131
chriswords 11:05 09:46 88 98
markdobell 11:09 09:35 85 95
andy 11:16 12:12 108 121
Heyesey 11:24 06:31 57 64
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:29 14:44 128 143
trux trux20 11:36 11:26 98 110
fuzz 11:51 10:27 88 98
David Crooks dcrooks 11:57 12:21 103 115
fshephe 11:58 13:03 109 122
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 10:34 87 97
neilr neilr 12:04 12:13 101 113
tilbee 12:27 12:20 99 111
aphasic 12:29 12:29 100 112
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:32 09:09 73 82
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:51 10:22 80 89
Ben Staveley 13:08 09:34 72 80
edwards.robert1 13:12 12:22 93 104
John Walsh 13:19 13:32 101 113
Silva 13:26 13:17 98 110
patrickcates 13:30 09:11 68 76
Secondbass 13:33 16:08 119 133
Stavros Stavrolex 13:35 10:50 79 88
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:42 14:11 103 115
Mike Mansbridge 13:44 03:07 22 24
michaelbell53 13:45 14:04 102 114
Finzi 14:14 14:18 100 112
jimwetzler 14:16 17:11 120 134
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:24 11:39 80 89
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:24 13:06 90 101
CentralLine CentralLine 14:27 15:41 108 121
Tibthorpe 14:37 12:11 83 93
Groucho 14:38 13:09 89 100
franceslc11 14:44 10:55 74 83
Semillon 15:02 13:44 91 102
Achernar 15:12 13:09 86 96
MK76 15:20 24:34 160 179
gabrojak 15:26 14:45 95 106
robinh 15:45 15:12 96 107
Eddddddd 15:52 14:23 90 101
BlackburnRover 15:59 17:01 106 119
johninterred Johninterred 16:03 15:02 93 104
andrewlake 16:12 17:02 105 117
Looch 16:19 12:35 77 86
Valance 16:33 14:26 87 97
ilan 16:45 12:13 72 80
KenD51 16:46 12:35 75 84
samgdavies 16:56 26:30 156 175
Craven 17:00 10:07 59 66
ajcauk1 17:06 17:01 99 111
Wyn Lewis Wyn Lewis 17:43 15:16 86 96
DunPangolin 17:51 15:40 87 97
pterodactyl 18:11 20:11 110 123
GMcD 18:11 21:52 120 134
John Arnold 18:39 17:00 91 102
Solver52 19:02 17:55 94 105
FraserH 19:24 23:12 119 133
Gallion Fish 19:25 15:53 81 91
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 19:29 16:09 82 92
DanSolo 19:32 20:33 105 117
Jeremy S 20:01 25:20 126 141
endafk 20:18 20:27 100 112
julian_w 20:48 12:37 60 67
pc8 21:06 18:35 88 98
cyrillic 21:21 19:25 90 101
James P Special_bitter 21:21 21:25 100 112
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:22 19:22 90 101
george.garlick 21:50 20:30 93 104
David Bourne 21:54 19:49 90 101
gsriordan52 22:06 16:03 72 80
dec 22:07 18:22 83 93
Curarist Curarist 22:15 16:49 75 84
barracuda barracuda 22:37 20:08 89 100
1234 23:44 15:21 64 71
goblin 23:45 19:48 83 93
david_ch 24:09 19:19 79 88
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 24:15 28:25 117 131
Terrier 24:39 13:51 56 62
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:00 36:57 147 165
DianeRS 25:02 18:08 72 80
Fidelio 25:05 15:51 63 70
klamery4 25:20 28:26 112 125
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 25:23 20:35 81 91
Crippens1 25:53 22:05 85 95
ulaca ulaca 26:00 24:45 95 106
infinitejest 26:45 21:25 80 89
chris661554 26:57 26:59 100 112
Jadebee 27:17 22:42 83 93
Bert Dove 27:21 22:45 83 93
JE59 27:35 25:49 93 104
JoeyC 27:39 30:37 110 123
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:40 17:53 64 71
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:46 17:28 62 69
Manveru 27:54 34:57 125 140
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:19 34:41 122 137
Gussie 28:23 21:44 76 85
Yatton50 28:33 39:57 139 156
Lloyd 28:57 25:13 87 97
gbestanley 30:08 19:18 64 71
cheryllayne cheryllayne 31:09 39:33 126 141
koro kororareka 31:54 22:00 68 76
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 33:49 31:35 93 104
boltonwanderer 34:33 58:00 167 187
FelicityTT 34:52 27:59 80 89
starstruck starstruck_au 36:00 36:59 102 114
HanS 36:06 35:24 98 110
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:21 27:17 75 84
6098mr 36:43 25:22 69 77
jackk.larg 37:36 28:03 74 83
alexngbr 37:54 25:06 66 74
Shushannah 38:56 35:08 90 101
MartinP MartinP1 42:42 27:05 63 70
empty 43:12 38:59 90 101
baronrob 44:56 25:04 55 61
Steve Wood 49:12 42:26 86 96
kjbr 54:50 39:23 71 79
profsjpayne 55:01 31:48 57 64

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back