Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28726

Date 05 October 2023
Number 28726
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 98
Count of ref solvers 71
Ref solvers excluded with errors 27
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28726

* 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 05:40 06:35 116 118
Jason 05:48 05:05 87 88
Diskus 06:31 06:16 96 97
hilarym 06:44 08:35 127 129
mistigris 06:46 06:03 89 90
lili 07:17 04:26 60 61
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 08:09 111 113
cmjhutton 07:47 08:31 109 111
Magoo 08:21 05:33 66 67
asaldanha 08:56 11:53 133 135
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:22 09:53 95 96
AlanS 10:25 09:56 95 96
glheard glh 10:32 12:28 118 120
markdobell 10:59 08:14 74 75
xyster 11:27 13:20 116 118
Heyesey 11:38 19:18 165 168
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 08:52 76 77
fshephe 12:02 17:16 143 145
David Crooks dcrooks 12:08 11:15 92 93
canismiser 12:10 14:40 120 122
neilr neilr 12:20 13:21 108 110
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:23 11:41 94 95
tilbee 12:42 14:22 113 115
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:43 17:58 141 143
JimboFS 12:48 11:13 87 88
aphasic 12:56 14:08 109 111
HoneyBadger 13:15 11:13 84 85
Ben Staveley 13:16 12:01 90 91
Silva 13:43 15:36 113 115
LouWeed LouWeed 13:46 15:07 109 111
Jim Willis 14:02 22:06 157 160
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:16 13:09 92 93
Finzi 14:27 17:40 122 124
Tibthorpe 14:35 14:37 100 102
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:38 10:20 70 71
franceslc11 14:44 17:18 117 119
Semillon 14:55 18:55 126 128
gabrojak 15:28 12:56 83 84
Secondbass 15:38 21:50 139 141
johninterred Johninterred 15:41 13:09 83 84
Squallaby 15:48 28:11 178 181
Peponi13 15:54 16:41 104 106
monkfish 16:02 22:46 141 143
robinh 16:03 19:05 118 120
Pootle Pootle 16:08 14:53 92 93
tapbarker 16:15 12:38 77 78
BlackburnRover 16:43 16:24 98 100
andrewlake 16:51 12:06 71 72
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:59 14:17 84 85
ajcauk1 17:05 18:02 105 107
ilan 17:06 19:20 113 115
Crucifer Crucifer 17:10 16:31 96 97
LJCN 17:17 13:42 79 80
Craven 17:22 18:01 103 105
Umpire 17:44 11:14 63 64
cmcnsmith 17:59 21:36 120 122
DunPangolin 18:04 24:08 133 135
KET 18:09 29:56 164 167
GMcD 18:22 27:28 149 152
Zander 18:40 17:40 94 95
Crossiant 18:48 13:56 74 75
uvofiz 19:04 15:49 82 83
Jeremy S 19:04 24:40 129 131
Grestyman Grestyman 19:37 18:27 94 95
cognominative 19:37 24:17 123 125
Hamish.S 20:21 13:49 67 68
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 20:31 18:37 90 91
endafk 20:40 20:37 99 101
DanSolo 20:52 20:46 99 101
James P Special_bitter 20:55 16:05 76 77
cyrillic 21:03 19:50 94 95
dec 21:22 24:59 116 118
hopkinb hopkinb 21:24 27:20 127 129
David Bourne 21:27 30:24 141 143
valerian1967 22:56 24:25 106 108
goblin 23:25 25:44 109 111
hugh schofield Leskoffer 23:29 20:29 87 88
stainl665 23:47 25:23 106 108
david_ch 24:11 20:50 86 87
Corymbia Corymbia 24:12 19:53 82 83
daniel.faith 24:15 22:47 93 94
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:00 19:47 79 80
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:51 17:20 67 68
Crippens1 26:36 26:56 101 103
chris661554 26:53 26:22 98 100
rosselliot 28:14 31:22 111 113
JoeyC 28:20 24:00 84 85
nekabue 29:38 32:01 108 110
gbestanley 30:26 44:10 145 147
Gussie 31:01 19:59 64 65
BertieVII 31:31 35:03 111 113
Grumpole Grumpole 31:54 18:03 56 57
cheryllayne cheryllayne 32:44 44:40 136 138
koro kororareka 32:45 33:16 101 103
FelicityTT 33:20 34:05 102 104
Jeeves 34:35 34:03 98 100
jackk.larg 35:14 31:52 90 91
SK42 35:58 66:41 185 188
boltonwanderer 36:26 49:00 134 136
branch branch 36:30 31:31 86 87
Winchelt618 37:00 25:48 69 70
HanS 37:43 48:49 129 131
Rozz 38:54 32:05 82 83
kapietro kapietro 39:10 52:47 134 136
maryht 39:23 45:55 116 118
Shushannah 39:53 41:45 104 106
Rookie 40:08 38:42 96 97
MartinP MartinP1 43:25 71:33 164 167
empty 43:54 45:02 102 104
paulmcl paulmcl 50:19 68:04 135 137
profsjpayne 51:31 76:45 148 151
Dalai Farmer 53:41 29:20 54 55
kjbr 53:52 64:06 118 120

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