Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28719

Date 27 September 2023
Number 28719
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 93
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 25
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28719

* 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 05:39 04:51 85 91
Jason 06:12 05:38 90 96
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 06:16 95 102
Diskus 06:35 06:57 105 112
mistigris 07:04 05:01 70 75
cmjhutton 07:23 05:56 80 86
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 11:14 151 162
lili 07:40 06:51 89 95
asaldanha 08:53 07:46 87 93
richard 09:07 08:15 90 96
Kinghedger 10:23 09:34 92 98
glheard glh 10:26 13:52 132 141
AlanS 10:37 28:51 271 291
miked1961 11:04 13:22 120 129
markdobell 11:04 11:36 104 111
xyster 11:07 11:06 99 106
keriothe_ keriothe 11:16 07:40 68 73
andy 11:23 12:22 108 116
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:35 09:24 81 87
fuzz 11:47 10:40 90 96
Sheapey Sheapey 11:47 13:12 112 120
fshephe 11:58 15:19 127 136
David Crooks dcrooks 11:59 14:37 121 130
neilr neilr 12:15 12:42 103 110
tilbee 12:30 10:48 86 92
aphasic 12:36 12:01 95 102
canismiser 12:40 12:41 100 107
JimboFS 12:50 10:21 80 86
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:54 13:08 101 108
michaelbell53 13:26 07:16 54 58
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:32 14:09 104 111
Stavros Stavrolex 13:33 13:40 100 107
Silva 13:37 12:54 94 101
HoneyBadger 13:52 13:19 96 103
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:02 17:51 127 136
CentralLine CentralLine 14:15 13:54 97 104
Finzi 14:19 15:32 108 116
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:29 11:31 79 84
Groucho 14:37 13:14 90 96
alexh 14:39 17:13 117 125
Tibthorpe 14:49 11:34 78 83
phthisis 14:53 18:32 124 133
Semillon 14:58 09:54 66 70
Achernar 15:00 20:07 134 144
gabrojak 15:24 16:01 104 111
MK76 15:43 11:36 73 78
SimonAnthony 15:52 09:08 57 61
tapbarker 16:07 12:31 77 82
Looch 16:33 14:13 85 91
BlackburnRover 16:35 16:05 96 103
Crucifer Crucifer 16:53 14:59 88 94
ilan 16:57 20:17 119 127
Craven 17:06 18:03 105 112
LJCN 17:14 12:17 71 76
DunPangolin 17:49 21:39 121 130
Colin2355 17:52 14:36 81 87
Zander 18:02 16:00 88 94
Foozler 18:08 17:30 96 103
GMcD 18:13 19:53 109 117
PGooden 18:20 19:32 106 113
cognominative 18:43 34:30 184 197
uvofiz 18:55 25:11 133 143
Crossiant 19:07 17:11 89 95
Umpire 20:27 12:47 62 66
endafk 20:32 16:15 79 84
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:47 17:51 85 91
cyrillic 20:50 24:16 116 124
James P Special_bitter 21:02 19:07 90 96
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 21:12 17:22 81 87
Leegoods 21:29 29:22 136 146
David Bourne 21:29 24:13 112 120
squark 21:30 12:05 56 60
Grestyman Grestyman 21:58 09:34 43 46
Edprof 22:07 27:52 125 134
hopkinb hopkinb 22:11 17:23 78 83
Nangle 22:19 27:22 122 131
barracuda barracuda 23:38 25:36 108 116
Tudds 23:53 15:23 64 68
goblin 23:54 19:50 82 88
Brenk Brenk1 24:33 35:17 143 153
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:48 22:33 90 96
daniel.faith 24:51 25:42 103 110
Corymbia Corymbia 25:04 21:32 85 91
brian.mcnamara 25:06 21:09 84 90
Fidelio 25:08 16:30 65 69
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:21 24:09 95 102
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:32 28:54 113 121
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:58 33:05 122 131
chris661554 27:03 21:56 81 87
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:24 23:58 87 93
Dr_Bob 27:48 37:55 136 146
McBeak McBeak 28:23 17:41 62 66
nekabue 28:47 23:24 81 87
ChrisBrea 28:59 25:45 88 94
pvoller 31:18 38:16 122 131
BertieVII 31:19 43:40 139 149
koro kororareka 32:15 29:17 90 96
cheryllayne cheryllayne 32:45 36:09 110 118
6098mr 34:25 23:05 67 72
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:30 23:43 68 73
boltonwanderer 35:28 28:00 78 83
starstruck starstruck_au 35:43 33:52 94 101
Cryptique 36:27 42:12 115 123
alexngbr 36:38 27:50 75 80
HanS 37:10 39:55 107 115
tyrotim tyrotim 38:36 37:57 98 105
Shushannah 39:08 30:39 78 83
Rozz 39:46 38:47 97 104
alistair.boere 42:23 41:25 97 104
MartinP MartinP1 42:49 43:13 100 107
baronrob 43:46 54:22 124 133
empty 43:50 43:52 100 107
Winchelt618 44:00 39:45 90 96

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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