Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28736

Date 17 October 2023
Number 28736
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 88
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28736

* 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 05:25 95 107
Jason 05:48 05:14 90 102
Diskus 06:31 05:25 83 94
verlaine Verlaine 06:40 05:32 83 94
hilarym 06:44 07:51 116 131
mistigris 06:46 04:23 64 72
lili 07:17 04:51 66 75
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 07:02 95 107
Paul Gilbert 07:35 05:54 77 87
asaldanha 08:56 07:09 80 90
boulemiche 09:07 08:07 89 101
chindit 09:14 10:27 113 128
Kinghedger 10:15 09:50 95 107
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:22 10:33 101 114
lickert 10:30 09:18 88 100
markdobell 10:59 09:28 86 97
keriothe_ keriothe 11:19 10:53 96 109
xyster 11:27 12:12 106 120
Deane Short Deane Short 11:31 08:35 74 84
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 12:43 109 123
ChuckB 11:47 14:38 124 140
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 08:48 73 82
fshephe 12:02 14:03 116 131
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:23 09:16 74 84
tilbee 12:42 11:15 88 100
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:43 09:42 76 86
HoneyBadger 13:15 15:36 117 132
Ben Staveley 13:16 14:30 109 123
Mike Mansbridge 13:30 11:53 88 100
Henry White 13:40 22:45 166 188
Silva 13:43 12:54 94 106
Stavros Stavrolex 13:43 15:30 113 128
CentralLine CentralLine 13:46 13:19 96 109
LouWeed LouWeed 13:46 14:58 108 122
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:58 13:30 96 109
edwards.robert1 14:00 14:21 102 115
Aloysius 14:12 21:12 149 169
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:16 12:51 90 102
Finzi 14:27 15:36 107 121
Tibthorpe 14:35 12:18 84 95
AndyR 14:37 17:10 117 132
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:38 11:19 77 87
Semillon 14:55 11:23 76 86
samgdavies 14:58 09:30 63 71
Eddddddd 15:21 13:35 88 100
gabrojak 15:28 16:26 106 120
MK76 15:29 12:43 82 93
Secondbass 15:38 08:27 54 61
Squallaby 15:48 16:02 101 114
monkfish 16:02 15:18 95 107
robinh 16:03 12:45 79 89
Pootle Pootle 16:08 18:29 114 129
SimonAnthony 16:15 09:26 58 65
Looch 16:47 15:17 91 103
PGooden 16:48 18:48 111 126
andrewlake 16:51 14:15 84 95
ilan 17:06 16:24 95 107
LJCN 17:17 16:38 96 109
Craven 17:22 13:26 77 87
Umpire 17:44 18:37 104 118
DunPangolin 18:04 13:06 72 81
Foozler 18:12 18:39 102 115
GMcD 18:22 17:52 97 110
Zander 18:40 16:09 86 97
Crossiant 18:48 18:44 99 112
Colin2355 18:54 19:47 104 118
Jeremy S 19:04 17:24 91 103
uvofiz 19:04 18:38 97 110
Cookincats 19:17 20:41 107 121
cognominative 19:37 43:12 220 250
daulbs 19:54 17:14 86 97
cath23 19:59 14:22 71 80
Gallion Fish 20:02 15:25 76 86
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 20:31 18:29 90 102
endafk 20:40 25:57 125 142
squark 20:48 20:18 97 110
DanSolo 20:52 17:57 86 97
James P Special_bitter 20:55 14:53 71 80
pc8 21:08 21:27 101 114
hopkinb hopkinb 21:24 15:03 70 79
David Bourne 21:27 17:17 80 90
valerian1967 22:56 15:19 66 75
goblin 23:25 07:04 30 34
hugh schofield Leskoffer 23:29 17:12 73 82
Waterloo 23:29 15:27 65 73
stainl665 23:47 24:57 104 118
Tudds 23:58 24:20 101 114
david_ch 24:11 32:05 132 150
daniel.faith 24:15 24:14 99 112
Riche Riche 24:25 20:56 85 96
barracuda barracuda 24:48 20:46 83 94
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:56 22:12 89 101
Fidelio 25:09 26:43 106 120
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:51 24:02 92 104
medodd 26:05 19:30 74 84
McBeak McBeak 26:44 22:35 84 95
chris661554 26:53 19:56 74 84
rosselliot 28:14 31:51 112 127
JoeyC 28:20 19:50 70 79
nekabue 29:38 31:08 105 119
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:57 26:59 90 102
gbestanley 30:26 32:51 107 121
BertieVII 31:31 33:28 106 120
Grumpole Grumpole 31:54 21:27 67 76
Manveru 32:00 28:36 89 101
Vagans 32:35 36:41 112 127
6098mr 32:43 30:39 93 105
koro kororareka 32:45 28:46 87 98
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:12 24:08 68 77
starstruck starstruck_au 35:34 25:15 70 79
Winchelt618 37:00 28:00 75 85
tyrotim tyrotim 37:06 40:08 108 122
Cryptique 37:23 33:59 90 102
kapietro kapietro 39:10 42:09 107 121
alistair.boere 39:20 17:08 43 48
maryht 39:23 47:26 120 136
Shushannah 39:53 34:12 85 96
Rookie 40:08 29:38 73 82
NAPASAI napasai 42:44 22:53 53 60
MartinP MartinP1 43:25 52:40 121 137
Steve Wood 48:19 39:23 81 92
profsjpayne 51:31 37:11 72 81
CoxBurglar coxburglar 55:00 29:39 53 60

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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