Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28702

Date 07 September 2023
Number 28702
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 118
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 11
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28702

* 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 06:51 149 126
Jason 06:12 13:28 217 183
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 09:34 146 123
Diskus 06:35 07:22 111 94
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 06:54 93 78
lili 07:40 10:38 138 116
Magoo 07:51 09:28 120 101
asaldanha 08:53 16:58 190 161
richard 09:07 12:19 135 114
chindit 09:30 11:21 119 100
lickert 10:19 12:47 123 104
Kinghedger 10:23 16:23 157 133
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:30 10:23 98 83
miked1961 11:04 12:10 109 92
Deane Short Deane Short 11:13 13:21 119 100
keriothe_ keriothe 11:16 15:04 133 112
chriswords 11:20 17:53 157 133
andy 11:23 18:19 160 135
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:35 11:46 101 85
ChuckB 11:42 15:30 132 111
Sheapey Sheapey 11:47 11:44 99 83
fuzz 11:47 10:19 87 73
fshephe 11:58 14:04 117 99
neilr neilr 12:15 16:41 136 115
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:31 12:56 103 87
JimboFS 12:50 10:53 84 71
d.middleton 12:53 16:04 124 105
edwards.robert1 13:16 14:35 109 92
jonathan.leather 13:22 11:58 89 75
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:32 20:35 152 128
Stavros Stavrolex 13:33 12:28 92 77
Silva 13:37 19:05 140 118
HoneyBadger 13:52 15:22 110 93
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:01 22:28 160 135
Finzi 14:19 16:46 117 99
Jim Willis 14:26 21:46 150 127
AndyR 14:32 16:38 114 96
Tibthorpe 14:49 18:59 128 108
phthisis 14:53 22:37 151 127
Semillon 14:58 15:19 102 86
franceslc11 15:06 17:01 112 94
SimonAnthony 15:52 14:59 94 79
johninterred Johninterred 15:54 19:23 121 102
tapbarker 16:07 21:54 135 114
Pootle Pootle 16:18 21:16 130 110
Looch 16:33 16:51 101 85
BlackburnRover 16:35 16:28 99 83
rupes 16:56 21:29 126 106
ilan 16:57 24:37 145 122
Craven 17:06 21:52 127 107
LJCN 17:14 13:39 79 66
Colin2355 17:52 23:10 129 109
Zander 18:02 15:23 85 72
GMcD 18:13 21:55 120 101
PGooden 18:20 16:06 87 73
cognominative 18:43 28:18 151 127
martinede 18:54 23:29 124 105
uvofiz 18:55 25:21 134 113
Crossiant 19:07 20:26 106 89
DanSolo 20:18 28:58 142 120
Umpire 20:27 11:18 55 46
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:47 25:44 123 104
cyrillic 20:50 21:57 105 88
george.garlick 20:57 19:59 95 80
pc8 20:57 22:02 105 88
julian_w 21:11 29:23 138 116
dec 21:21 22:39 106 89
Curarist Curarist 21:24 45:23 212 179
Leegoods 21:29 22:29 104 88
David Bourne 21:29 24:28 113 95
squark 21:30 22:07 102 86
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:36 28:22 131 111
Edprof 22:07 32:55 148 125
Nangle 22:19 24:45 110 93
gsriordan52 22:31 24:45 109 92
Waterloo 23:10 25:17 109 92
stainl665 23:12 33:01 142 120
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:27 28:05 119 100
barracuda barracuda 23:38 19:29 82 69
david_ch 23:48 25:42 107 90
goblin 23:54 26:30 110 93
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 24:27 24:57 102 86
Sheen 24:29 43:15 176 149
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:48 32:33 131 111
daniel.faith 24:51 28:13 113 95
suethepotterer 25:05 27:55 111 94
brian.mcnamara 25:06 26:48 106 89
Fidelio 25:08 38:43 154 130
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:21 40:22 159 134
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:32 37:43 147 124
Crippens1 26:24 34:23 130 110
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:58 34:50 129 109
chris661554 27:03 43:07 159 134
SlumdogEngineer 27:11 49:55 183 155
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:24 37:15 135 114
bobbb 28:08 26:35 94 79
rosselliot 28:10 36:49 130 110
Yatton50 28:13 33:10 117 99
infinitejest 28:13 52:10 184 155
Speedcop2 28:28 36:19 127 107
JoeyC 28:39 34:59 122 103
Lloyd 28:44 44:51 156 132
nekabue 28:47 24:16 84 71
ChrisBrea 28:59 31:03 107 90
Manveru 29:13 37:24 128 108
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:15 41:21 141 119
NAPASAI napasai 29:36 74:35 251 212
gbestanley 29:41 34:48 117 99
koro kororareka 32:15 40:50 126 106
cheryllayne cheryllayne 32:45 44:42 136 115
FelicityTT 33:45 30:48 91 77
jeremy.kenyon 35:05 37:39 107 90
boltonwanderer 35:28 43:00 121 102
marp 35:33 50:52 143 121
jackk.larg 36:03 39:48 110 93
joss henry 36:09 41:11 113 95
Cryptique 36:27 44:58 123 104
alexngbr 36:38 26:40 72 61
maryht 38:27 60:52 158 133
Shushannah 39:08 68:35 175 148
Rozz 39:46 44:18 111 94
empty 43:50 55:56 127 107
Winchelt618 44:00 28:06 63 53
Steve Wood 48:00 72:22 150 127
profsjpayne 55:09 32:10 58 49
Masha 55:57 83:45 149 126

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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