Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28742

Date 24 October 2023
Number 28742
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 113
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28742

* 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 07:15 125 110
Diskus 06:31 05:58 91 80
verlaine Verlaine 06:40 04:59 74 65
mistigris 06:46 07:19 108 95
lili 07:17 08:30 116 102
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 08:25 114 100
Paul Gilbert 07:35 08:49 116 102
cmjhutton 07:47 12:05 155 137
chindit 09:14 09:02 97 85
Kinghedger 10:15 12:22 120 106
AlanS 10:25 10:15 98 86
lickert 10:30 11:16 107 94
glheard glh 10:32 09:22 88 77
markdobell 10:59 10:58 99 87
miked1961 11:10 11:50 105 92
keriothe_ keriothe 11:19 18:14 161 142
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 19:03 163 144
fuzz 11:52 10:10 85 75
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 13:54 115 101
fshephe 12:02 16:15 135 119
David Crooks dcrooks 12:08 13:57 114 100
canismiser 12:10 18:47 154 136
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:23 14:19 115 101
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:43 12:15 96 84
aphasic 12:56 12:44 98 86
HoneyBadger 13:15 24:37 185 163
Paul Bacon 13:20 17:31 131 115
Mike Mansbridge 13:30 12:06 89 78
Henry White 13:40 19:50 145 128
Silva 13:43 15:31 113 100
Stavros Stavrolex 13:43 27:29 200 176
LouWeed LouWeed 13:46 15:20 111 98
CentralLine CentralLine 13:46 23:55 173 153
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:58 16:18 116 102
edwards.robert1 14:00 12:23 88 77
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:15 13:53 97 85
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:16 19:45 138 122
Groucho 14:21 17:25 121 107
Finzi 14:27 17:43 122 107
Tibthorpe 14:35 18:45 128 113
JezWoolfrey 14:49 13:49 93 82
phthisis 14:51 18:29 124 109
Semillon 14:55 17:22 116 102
gabrojak 15:28 18:43 121 107
myles 15:36 19:57 127 112
johninterred Johninterred 15:41 19:44 125 110
Squallaby 15:48 13:22 84 74
robinh 16:03 18:03 112 99
Pootle Pootle 16:08 17:41 109 96
tapbarker 16:15 22:10 136 120
SimonAnthony 16:15 19:02 117 103
BlackburnRover 16:43 16:02 95 84
Looch 16:47 23:08 137 121
PGooden 16:48 21:43 129 114
andrewlake 16:51 18:25 109 96
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:59 32:26 190 168
ajcauk1 17:05 19:58 116 102
ilan 17:06 22:22 130 115
Crucifer Crucifer 17:10 15:56 92 81
LJCN 17:17 20:10 116 102
zinzan 17:20 19:17 111 98
Craven 17:22 24:00 138 122
Umpire 17:44 15:30 87 76
GMcD 18:22 19:59 108 95
Zander 18:40 32:16 172 152
Crossiant 18:48 12:48 68 60
Colin2355 18:54 15:17 80 70
uvofiz 19:04 27:01 141 124
Cookincats 19:17 27:28 142 125
Andrew Whiffin 19:26 28:31 146 129
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:44 19:25 98 86
Gallion Fish 20:02 20:18 101 89
crosswordian 20:31 21:59 107 94
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 20:31 17:50 86 76
squark 20:48 22:19 107 94
DanSolo 20:52 29:08 139 123
James P Special_bitter 20:55 28:59 138 122
julian_w 21:00 19:08 91 80
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:01 25:57 123 108
cyrillic 21:03 26:41 126 111
pc8 21:08 21:57 103 91
Curarist Curarist 21:27 16:39 77 68
UisceTe 22:13 24:47 111 98
1234 22:48 23:04 101 89
tony the butcher montana 22:54 30:56 135 119
gsriordan52 22:59 21:01 91 80
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:22 24:20 104 92
goblin 23:25 28:38 122 107
hugh schofield Leskoffer 23:29 29:43 126 111
DianeRS 23:57 37:03 154 136
Tudds 23:58 27:55 116 102
Corymbia Corymbia 24:12 31:26 129 114
daniel.faith 24:15 28:01 115 101
Riche Riche 24:25 30:18 124 109
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:56 23:19 93 82
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:00 29:50 119 105
Fidelio 25:09 40:36 161 142
suethepotterer 25:43 36:03 140 123
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:51 31:58 123 108
ulaca ulaca 26:10 55:02 210 185
McBeak McBeak 26:44 31:28 117 103
chris661554 26:53 49:04 182 161
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:50 34:38 124 109
Deezzaa Deezzaa 28:06 30:08 107 94
rosselliot 28:14 34:06 120 106
bobbb 29:03 24:05 82 72
JMbrow29 29:11 46:41 159 140
nekabue 29:38 48:39 164 145
Speedcop2 29:50 25:01 83 73
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:57 34:54 116 102
gbestanley 30:26 33:38 110 97
Gussie 31:01 42:18 136 120
Grumpole Grumpole 31:54 34:46 108 95
6098mr 32:43 23:34 72 63
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:12 46:18 131 115
starstruck starstruck_au 35:34 62:20 175 154
SK42 35:58 49:15 136 120
boltonwanderer 36:26 56:00 153 135
Cryptique 37:23 60:24 161 142
HanS 37:43 41:06 108 95
Rozz 38:54 30:32 78 69
alistair.boere 39:20 51:02 129 114
maryht 39:23 43:02 109 96
Shushannah 39:53 30:28 76 67
baronrob 43:46 51:53 118 104
empty 43:54 40:32 92 81
Steve Wood 48:19 54:38 113 100
profsjpayne 51:31 42:17 82 72
CoxBurglar coxburglar 55:00 43:44 79 69

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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