Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28733

Date 13 October 2023
Number 28733
Day of week Friday
NITCH 98
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28733

* 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 04:39 04:26 95 96
Jason 05:48 09:13 158 161
verlaine Verlaine 06:40 07:27 111 113
mistigris 06:46 06:08 90 91
lili 07:17 08:31 116 118
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 08:28 115 117
cmjhutton 07:47 08:51 113 115
asaldanha 08:56 13:27 150 153
chindit 09:14 08:02 87 88
joelhames 09:14 08:15 89 90
Kinghedger 10:15 14:34 142 144
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:22 12:43 122 124
AlanS 10:25 15:00 144 146
lickert 10:30 07:18 69 70
glheard glh 10:32 08:45 83 84
markdobell 10:59 11:11 101 103
miked1961 11:10 11:50 105 107
keriothe_ keriothe 11:19 13:11 116 118
Heyesey 11:38 15:26 132 134
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 13:32 116 118
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 12:56 107 109
fshephe 12:02 11:13 93 94
David Crooks dcrooks 12:08 14:05 116 118
canismiser 12:10 22:27 184 187
neilr neilr 12:20 13:01 105 107
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:23 09:40 78 79
tilbee 12:42 14:54 117 119
JimboFS 12:48 12:56 101 103
HoneyBadger 13:15 12:19 92 93
Ben Staveley 13:16 17:57 135 137
Silva 13:43 12:05 88 89
Stavros Stavrolex 13:43 12:08 88 89
LouWeed LouWeed 13:46 12:19 89 90
CentralLine CentralLine 13:46 15:14 110 112
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:58 13:24 95 96
edwards.robert1 14:00 12:52 91 92
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:16 09:44 68 69
Groucho 14:21 14:18 99 101
Tibthorpe 14:35 12:52 88 89
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:38 16:11 110 112
franceslc11 14:44 11:01 74 75
JezWoolfrey 14:49 15:09 102 104
phthisis 14:51 13:17 89 90
Semillon 14:55 14:04 94 95
Ease This Jam 15:18 11:39 76 77
Eddddddd 15:21 11:10 72 73
gabrojak 15:28 16:02 103 105
myles 15:36 13:37 87 88
Secondbass 15:38 14:04 89 90
robinh 16:03 19:40 122 124
Pootle Pootle 16:08 08:56 55 56
tapbarker 16:15 19:42 121 123
BlackburnRover 16:43 15:40 93 94
Looch 16:47 13:43 81 82
PGooden 16:48 19:32 116 118
andrewlake 16:51 21:01 124 126
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:59 16:00 94 95
ajcauk1 17:05 18:58 111 113
ilan 17:06 20:57 122 124
LJCN 17:17 14:24 83 84
zinzan 17:20 21:37 124 126
Umpire 17:44 14:11 79 80
DunPangolin 18:04 16:15 89 90
pterodactyl 18:09 19:41 108 110
GMcD 18:22 15:49 86 87
Zander 18:40 19:18 103 105
Crossiant 18:48 16:07 85 86
kath 18:54 19:02 100 102
tds 18:58 27:39 145 147
Jeremy S 19:04 20:47 109 111
uvofiz 19:04 16:02 84 85
cognominative 19:37 30:50 157 160
Grestyman Grestyman 19:37 21:11 107 109
Hamish.S 20:21 28:34 140 142
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 20:31 23:52 116 118
crosswordian 20:31 24:40 120 122
endafk 20:40 23:09 112 114
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:01 19:37 93 94
cyrillic 21:03 20:35 97 98
pc8 21:08 24:38 116 118
hopkinb hopkinb 21:24 39:28 184 187
Curarist Curarist 21:27 20:34 95 96
David Bourne 21:27 16:39 77 78
Nangle 22:21 15:57 71 72
valerian1967 22:56 18:36 81 82
gsriordan52 22:59 15:09 65 66
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:22 29:34 126 128
goblin 23:25 26:59 115 117
DianeRS 23:57 14:51 62 63
david_ch 24:11 19:19 79 80
daniel.faith 24:15 18:20 75 76
Riche Riche 24:25 27:39 113 115
barracuda barracuda 24:48 29:08 117 119
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:56 26:11 105 107
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:00 34:23 137 139
Fidelio 25:09 23:08 91 92
suethepotterer 25:43 21:16 82 83
medodd 26:05 34:27 132 134
Crippens1 26:36 24:58 93 94
McBeak McBeak 26:44 36:04 134 136
chris661554 26:53 28:39 106 108
Yatton50 27:38 24:35 88 89
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:50 28:52 103 105
Deezzaa Deezzaa 28:06 35:45 127 129
Dr_Bob 28:12 31:29 111 113
JoeyC 28:20 24:35 86 87
Lloyd 28:33 32:50 115 117
nekabue 29:38 27:35 93 94
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:57 22:12 74 75
gbestanley 30:26 36:14 119 121
jeremy.kenyon 31:20 20:56 66 67
BertieVII 31:31 61:48 196 200
Manveru 32:00 26:38 83 84
SlumdogEngineer 32:21 19:11 59 60
koro kororareka 32:45 34:49 106 108
dosbarth 33:21 34:54 104 106
starstruck starstruck_au 35:34 37:40 105 107
boltonwanderer 36:26 52:00 142 144
branch branch 36:30 24:25 66 67
HanS 37:43 20:37 54 55
Rozz 38:54 35:47 91 92
kapietro kapietro 39:10 39:25 100 102
maryht 39:23 48:02 121 123
Rookie 40:08 33:25 83 84
MartinP MartinP1 43:25 49:20 113 115
empty 43:54 45:17 103 105
Steve Wood 48:19 51:01 105 107
profsjpayne 51:31 41:49 81 82
kjbr 53:52 49:57 92 93
CoxBurglar coxburglar 55:00 34:03 61 62

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