Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28727

Date 06 October 2023
Number 28727
Day of week Friday
NITCH 156
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28727

* 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
Jason 05:48 09:29 163 104
Diskus 06:31 16:09 247 158
verlaine Verlaine 06:40 19:40 295 189
mistigris 06:46 17:33 259 166
lili 07:17 09:53 135 86
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 12:24 169 108
Paul Gilbert 07:35 14:23 189 121
cmjhutton 07:47 17:50 229 146
Magoo 08:21 32:48 392 251
asaldanha 08:56 14:57 167 107
chindit 09:14 15:26 167 107
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:22 12:31 120 76
miked1961 11:10 19:17 172 110
Heyesey 11:38 12:13 105 67
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 20:52 178 114
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 25:23 211 135
fshephe 12:02 17:09 142 91
David Crooks dcrooks 12:08 22:18 183 117
neilr neilr 12:20 16:47 136 87
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:23 19:15 155 99
tilbee 12:42 23:16 183 117
HoneyBadger 13:15 22:51 172 110
Ben Staveley 13:16 17:04 128 82
Mike Mansbridge 13:30 26:24 195 125
Stavros Stavrolex 13:43 29:32 215 137
CentralLine CentralLine 13:46 20:15 147 94
LouWeed LouWeed 13:46 23:56 173 110
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:58 21:59 157 100
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:15 29:52 209 133
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:16 24:48 173 110
Finzi 14:27 17:30 121 77
Tibthorpe 14:35 21:26 146 93
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:38 25:38 175 112
franceslc11 14:44 21:14 144 92
Semillon 14:55 25:55 173 110
Achernar 15:06 18:44 124 79
Secondbass 15:38 22:29 143 91
Squallaby 15:48 43:03 272 174
Peponi13 15:54 19:59 125 80
robinh 16:03 14:45 91 58
tapbarker 16:15 23:03 141 90
SimonAnthony 16:15 65:50 405 259
Looch 16:47 28:33 170 108
andrewlake 16:51 26:31 157 100
ilan 17:06 22:55 134 85
Crucifer Crucifer 17:10 44:17 257 164
LJCN 17:17 26:30 153 98
Umpire 17:44 23:03 129 82
GMcD 18:22 25:36 139 89
Zander 18:40 26:06 139 89
Colin2355 18:54 29:22 155 99
Grestyman Grestyman 19:37 17:20 88 56
cognominative 19:37 34:57 178 114
Hamish.S 20:21 29:38 145 92
endafk 20:40 33:42 163 104
squark 20:48 29:49 143 91
julian_w 21:00 31:46 151 96
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:01 29:06 138 88
cyrillic 21:03 40:27 192 123
pc8 21:08 21:16 100 64
Curarist Curarist 21:27 33:18 155 99
Leegoods 21:32 34:24 159 101
Edprof 22:24 35:09 156 100
gsriordan52 22:59 34:16 149 95
goblin 23:25 26:41 113 72
Waterloo 23:29 42:52 182 116
hugh schofield Leskoffer 23:29 43:24 184 117
Tudds 23:58 38:22 160 102
david_ch 24:11 46:50 193 123
Corymbia Corymbia 24:12 49:41 205 131
daniel.faith 24:15 32:39 134 85
barracuda barracuda 24:48 42:27 171 109
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:00 36:01 144 92
Terrier 25:15 42:51 169 108
klamery4 25:30 32:33 127 81
medodd 26:05 40:44 156 100
Crippens1 26:36 43:42 164 105
chris661554 26:53 41:14 153 98
Yatton50 27:38 38:12 138 88
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:50 40:34 145 92
Deezzaa Deezzaa 28:06 34:29 122 78
rosselliot 28:14 41:28 146 93
JoeyC 28:20 34:51 123 78
nekabue 29:38 84:00 283 181
Speedcop2 29:50 42:20 141 90
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:57 34:48 116 74
gbestanley 30:26 49:54 163 104
Gussie 31:01 61:40 198 126
BertieVII 31:31 42:58 136 87
Vagans 32:35 44:42 137 87
koro kororareka 32:45 64:36 197 126
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:12 61:17 174 111
starstruck starstruck_au 35:34 63:52 179 114
SK42 35:58 49:16 136 87
boltonwanderer 36:26 52:00 142 91
Winchelt618 37:00 25:42 69 44
HanS 37:43 38:52 103 66
Rozz 38:54 55:33 142 91
kapietro kapietro 39:10 39:00 99 63
alistair.boere 39:20 27:49 70 44
maryht 39:23 37:48 95 60
Rookie 40:08 59:23 147 94
MartinP MartinP1 43:25 95:26 219 140
baronrob 43:46 57:50 132 84
empty 43:54 59:38 135 86
Steve Wood 48:19 83:23 172 110
profsjpayne 51:31 81:48 158 101
Dalai Farmer 53:41 79:14 147 94
CoxBurglar coxburglar 55:00 68:13 124 79

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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