Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28699

Date 04 September 2023
Number 28699
Day of week Monday
NITCH 68
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28699

* 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 04:35 03:10 69 101
Nathan Panning 05:39 04:08 73 107
Jason 06:12 03:10 51 75
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 04:07 63 92
Diskus 06:35 05:10 78 114
hilarym 06:45 03:58 58 85
cmjhutton 07:23 04:43 63 92
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 04:53 65 95
Paul Gilbert 07:24 05:36 75 110
lili 07:40 04:38 60 88
Magoo 07:51 04:48 61 89
asaldanha 08:53 05:10 58 85
richard 09:07 06:36 72 105
chindit 09:30 06:00 63 92
lickert 10:19 05:43 55 80
tiggis 10:20 06:46 65 95
Kinghedger 10:23 05:52 56 82
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:30 08:21 79 116
AlanS 10:37 07:35 71 104
miked1961 11:04 08:19 75 110
markdobell 11:04 09:33 86 126
xyster 11:07 13:17 119 175
keriothe_ keriothe 11:16 05:54 52 76
chriswords 11:20 09:03 79 116
andy 11:23 06:53 60 88
ChuckB 11:42 09:16 79 116
Sheapey Sheapey 11:47 10:43 90 132
fshephe 11:58 11:33 96 141
David Crooks dcrooks 11:59 10:26 87 127
neilr neilr 12:15 09:16 75 110
patrickcates 12:31 11:37 92 135
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:31 07:42 61 89
aphasic 12:36 12:39 100 147
canismiser 12:40 08:25 66 97
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:54 09:41 75 110
Ben Staveley 13:09 09:56 75 110
John Walsh 13:15 11:13 84 123
edwards.robert1 13:16 18:45 141 207
Paul Bacon 13:20 11:47 88 129
jonathan.leather 13:22 18:26 137 201
SimonB 13:26 17:16 128 188
michaelbell53 13:26 10:47 80 117
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:32 09:16 68 100
Stavros Stavrolex 13:33 08:55 65 95
Derek Harrison 13:34 15:07 111 163
Silva 13:37 11:33 84 123
Henry White 13:40 10:21 75 110
LouWeed LouWeed 13:41 12:08 88 129
HoneyBadger 13:52 10:41 77 113
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:01 16:30 117 172
jimwetzler 14:12 12:45 89 130
CentralLine CentralLine 14:15 09:30 66 97
Finzi 14:19 12:02 84 123
AndyR 14:32 10:09 69 101
JezWoolfrey 14:34 12:27 85 125
Groucho 14:37 09:32 65 95
alexh 14:39 11:29 78 114
Tibthorpe 14:49 09:19 62 91
phthisis 14:53 13:09 88 129
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 14:56 07:54 52 76
Semillon 14:58 09:53 66 97
Carol 14:59 09:34 63 92
Achernar 15:00 13:09 87 127
franceslc11 15:06 10:28 69 101
Eddddddd 15:23 09:24 61 89
Peponi13 15:26 13:51 89 130
Squallaby 15:33 08:12 52 76
MK76 15:43 11:53 75 110
SimonAnthony 15:52 08:21 52 76
johninterred Johninterred 15:54 09:39 60 88
tapbarker 16:07 11:58 74 108
Pootle Pootle 16:18 07:25 45 66
Ludo 16:19 10:37 65 95
andrewlake 16:31 11:33 69 101
Looch 16:33 13:49 83 122
BlackburnRover 16:35 16:11 97 142
ilan 16:57 16:05 94 138
DunPangolin 17:49 10:31 59 86
Wyn Lewis Wyn Lewis 17:49 13:22 75 110
Colin2355 17:52 19:20 108 158
Zander 18:02 14:55 82 120
GMcD 18:13 11:26 62 91
kath 18:13 12:01 65 95
PGooden 18:20 08:33 46 67
John Arnold 18:42 16:10 86 126
cognominative 18:43 16:28 87 127
Andrew Whiffin 18:49 14:17 75 110
martinede 18:54 18:28 97 142
Crossiant 19:07 10:34 55 80
tds 19:08 14:13 74 108
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 19:28 12:46 65 95
Jeremy S 19:49 13:43 69 101
Cookincats 20:08 16:09 80 117
Hamish.S 20:12 08:34 42 61
endafk 20:32 14:51 72 105
cyrillic 20:50 21:51 104 152
pc8 20:57 14:29 69 101
James P Special_bitter 21:02 11:46 55 80
crosswordian 21:21 18:31 86 126
Leegoods 21:29 17:54 83 122
David Bourne 21:29 15:38 72 105
hopkinb hopkinb 22:11 14:15 64 94
Nangle 22:19 13:51 62 91
gsriordan52 22:31 13:08 58 85
Waterloo 23:10 20:52 90 132
1234 23:42 14:35 61 89
david_ch 23:48 13:53 58 85
Tudds 23:53 15:11 63 92
goblin 23:54 19:10 80 117
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:48 17:50 71 104
daniel.faith 24:51 19:53 80 117
klamery4 25:09 20:27 81 119
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:21 15:07 59 86
Riche Riche 25:31 19:24 76 111
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:32 19:07 74 108
medodd 25:37 21:02 82 120
Bert Dove 26:22 25:49 97 142
Crippens1 26:24 27:54 105 154
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:24 18:05 65 95
Yatton50 28:13 18:43 66 97
McBeak McBeak 28:23 15:18 53 77
nekabue 28:47 31:19 108 158
Manveru 29:13 35:26 121 177
gbestanley 29:41 33:45 113 166
koro kororareka 32:15 19:36 60 88
cheryllayne cheryllayne 32:45 26:27 80 117
symbenall2 33:59 28:26 83 122
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:30 38:36 111 163
jeremy.kenyon 35:05 20:02 57 83
boltonwanderer 35:28 16:00 45 66
marp 35:33 28:52 81 119
starstruck starstruck_au 35:43 25:30 71 104
jackk.larg 36:03 27:36 76 111
Cryptique 36:27 36:03 98 144
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:37 23:00 62 91
HanS 37:10 47:09 126 185
maryht 38:27 39:20 102 150
tyrotim tyrotim 38:36 26:02 67 98
Shushannah 39:08 36:31 93 136
baronrob 43:46 48:01 109 160
empty 43:50 42:24 96 141
Steve Wood 48:00 45:24 94 138
CoxBurglar coxburglar 52:48 27:43 52 76
kjbr 53:56 47:51 88 129
profsjpayne 55:09 15:32 28 41

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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