Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28738

Date 19 October 2023
Number 28738
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 125
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 24
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28738

* 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 09:43 167 133
Diskus 06:31 07:11 110 88
verlaine Verlaine 06:40 08:13 123 98
mistigris 06:46 13:06 193 154
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 09:48 133 106
Magoo 08:21 07:57 95 76
asaldanha 08:56 11:07 124 99
chindit 09:14 16:00 173 138
Kinghedger 10:15 14:08 137 109
AlanS 10:25 11:04 106 84
lickert 10:30 17:18 164 131
glheard glh 10:32 08:57 84 67
markdobell 10:59 11:32 105 84
miked1961 11:10 12:25 111 88
keriothe_ keriothe 11:19 12:56 114 91
xyster 11:27 16:59 148 118
Heyesey 11:38 16:42 143 114
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 15:10 130 104
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 15:12 126 100
fshephe 12:02 13:58 116 92
David Crooks dcrooks 12:08 15:44 129 103
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:23 17:37 142 113
d.middleton 12:33 15:08 120 96
tilbee 12:42 21:02 165 132
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:43 20:20 159 127
HoneyBadger 13:15 18:08 136 108
Silva 13:43 13:19 97 77
CentralLine CentralLine 13:46 22:22 162 129
jonathan.leather 13:48 08:00 57 45
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:58 23:06 165 132
Aloysius 14:12 17:46 125 100
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:16 15:44 110 88
Finzi 14:27 21:37 149 119
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:38 21:51 149 119
alexh 14:41 13:12 89 71
franceslc11 14:44 24:59 169 135
phthisis 14:51 21:34 145 116
Semillon 14:55 19:55 133 106
tapbarker 16:15 22:45 140 112
PGooden 16:48 26:46 159 127
andrewlake 16:51 18:07 107 85
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:59 16:06 94 75
Crucifer Crucifer 17:10 25:40 149 119
LJCN 17:17 24:09 139 111
Umpire 17:44 16:28 92 73
DunPangolin 18:04 27:12 150 120
KET 18:09 34:32 190 152
GMcD 18:22 17:40 96 76
Zander 18:40 36:29 195 156
Crossiant 18:48 18:39 99 79
Colin2355 18:54 25:09 133 106
uvofiz 19:04 23:46 124 99
cath23 19:59 29:17 146 116
Hamish.S 20:21 32:41 160 128
endafk 20:40 24:16 117 93
squark 20:48 28:25 136 108
James P Special_bitter 20:55 40:30 193 154
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:01 25:56 123 98
pc8 21:08 27:22 129 103
dec 21:22 29:43 139 111
Curarist Curarist 21:27 31:18 145 116
David Bourne 21:27 30:27 141 112
george.garlick 21:38 36:47 170 136
Edprof 22:24 36:13 161 128
valerian1967 22:56 28:33 124 99
gsriordan52 22:59 21:51 95 76
goblin 23:25 35:26 151 120
hugh schofield Leskoffer 23:29 20:54 88 70
stainl665 23:47 35:55 151 120
Tudds 23:58 26:55 112 89
david_ch 24:11 32:15 133 106
Corymbia Corymbia 24:12 38:20 158 126
daniel.faith 24:15 30:03 123 98
brian.mcnamara 25:07 36:01 143 114
Terrier 25:15 34:41 137 109
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:51 24:48 95 76
McBeak McBeak 26:44 27:13 101 80
chris661554 26:53 28:21 105 84
Dr_Bob 28:12 37:46 133 106
Lloyd 28:33 49:14 172 137
ChrisBrea 28:38 43:50 153 122
Speedcop2 29:50 27:34 92 73
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:57 34:27 115 92
pvoller 30:34 34:49 113 90
bruce.johnston22 30:52 50:53 164 131
Gussie 31:01 28:32 91 72
BertieVII 31:31 41:48 132 105
Grumpole Grumpole 31:54 53:24 167 133
cheryllayne cheryllayne 32:44 32:27 99 79
koro kororareka 32:45 38:34 117 93
FelicityTT 33:20 51:25 154 123
Jeeves 34:35 43:23 125 100
SK42 35:58 54:12 150 120
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:25 47:42 130 104
HanS 37:43 26:06 69 55
kapietro kapietro 39:10 51:36 131 104
alistair.boere 39:20 29:09 74 59
Shushannah 39:53 76:48 192 153
NAPASAI napasai 42:44 105:51 247 197
Steve Wood 48:19 70:24 145 116
CoxBurglar coxburglar 55:00 31:14 56 44

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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