Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28756

Date 09 November 2023
Number 28756
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 84
Count of ref solvers 54
Ref solvers excluded with errors 21
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28756

* 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
Diskus 06:25 06:51 106 126
verlaine Verlaine 06:39 05:56 89 105
mistigris 06:44 06:30 96 114
aphis99 aphis99 07:23 07:58 107 127
cmjhutton 07:51 07:28 95 113
asaldanha 08:55 06:07 68 80
boulemiche 09:05 12:08 133 158
chindit 09:14 08:46 94 111
tiggis 10:20 14:46 142 169
Kinghedger 10:28 08:34 81 96
AlanS 10:34 11:31 108 128
glheard glh 10:39 10:28 98 116
markdobell 10:39 10:50 101 120
keriothe_ keriothe 11:19 12:11 107 127
miked1961 11:21 08:03 70 83
Deane Short Deane Short 11:23 10:53 95 113
xyster 11:35 09:17 80 95
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:40 07:48 66 78
fuzz 11:45 12:26 105 125
Sheapey Sheapey 12:05 15:36 129 153
David Crooks dcrooks 12:16 08:17 67 79
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:23 10:50 87 103
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:27 08:43 70 83
JimboFS 12:33 08:16 65 77
tilbee 12:52 10:26 81 96
Ben Staveley 12:59 12:11 93 110
John Walsh 13:05 12:31 95 113
Peter Lewiston 13:10 05:16 40 47
Paul Bacon 13:25 13:19 99 117
chriss 13:26 18:15 135 160
Stavros Stavrolex 13:30 14:23 106 126
Henry White 13:49 11:53 86 102
jonathan.leather 13:49 17:13 124 147
LouWeed LouWeed 13:54 18:41 134 159
edwards.robert1 13:54 10:10 73 86
CentralLine CentralLine 14:00 08:07 57 67
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:03 18:27 131 155
Tibthorpe 14:23 08:53 61 72
alexh 14:23 14:56 103 122
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:32 15:12 104 123
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:32 10:18 70 83
GeorgeTz 14:34 19:32 134 159
Finzi 14:42 14:29 98 116
phthisis 14:58 15:00 100 119
Semillon 15:03 14:54 99 117
Secondbass 15:17 13:50 90 107
johninterred Johninterred 15:33 12:20 79 94
robinh 15:58 15:39 98 116
Pootle Pootle 15:59 11:14 70 83
Umpire 16:24 10:17 62 73
PGooden 16:43 16:40 99 117
LJCN 16:51 03:25 20 23
Looch 16:53 12:59 76 90
andrewlake 16:55 16:30 97 115
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:56 20:48 122 145
BlackburnRover 16:56 14:11 83 98
ilan 17:09 21:02 122 145
ajcauk1 17:10 18:58 110 130
zinzan 17:13 15:29 89 105
Crucifer Crucifer 17:17 12:09 70 83
Craven 17:19 17:15 99 117
DunPangolin 18:06 20:34 113 134
GMcD 18:31 16:06 86 102
Crossiant 18:32 13:10 71 84
MossDef 18:42 15:35 83 98
Freemers 19:03 13:47 72 85
uvofiz 19:05 19:06 100 119
Colin2355 19:10 22:12 115 136
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 19:12 22:11 115 136
Andrew Whiffin 19:20 16:02 82 97
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:35 18:12 92 109
cath23 20:00 14:18 71 84
Solver52 20:04 19:42 98 116
Hamish.S 20:39 17:54 86 102
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:49 25:29 122 145
David Bourne 20:51 20:16 97 115
endafk 20:57 13:14 63 75
pc8 21:00 18:51 89 105
DanSolo 21:02 14:42 69 82
James P Special_bitter 21:22 18:59 88 104
UisceTe 21:36 25:48 119 141
hopkinb hopkinb 21:37 20:12 93 110
Nangle 21:44 23:03 106 126
gsriordan52 22:32 18:56 84 100
daniel.faith 23:13 21:14 91 108
Waterloo 23:21 17:23 74 88
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:35 18:28 78 92
Riche Riche 23:39 26:36 112 133
goblin 23:42 24:40 104 123
david_ch 24:09 28:16 117 139
Corymbia Corymbia 24:31 21:34 87 103
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:35 26:53 109 129
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 25:15 101 120
barracuda barracuda 25:11 22:46 90 107
brian.mcnamara 25:13 18:12 72 85
Fidelio 25:17 23:33 93 110
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:29 25:46 101 120
McBeak McBeak 25:33 20:36 80 95
medodd 26:09 18:18 69 82
ulaca ulaca 26:19 25:52 98 116
Crippens1 26:19 25:22 96 114
chris661554 26:22 24:28 92 109
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:18 31:33 115 136
Yatton50 27:42 21:25 77 91
rosselliot 28:20 34:50 122 145
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:14 21:03 72 85
JoeyC 29:19 27:45 94 111
jeremy.kenyon 30:09 26:47 88 104
pvoller 30:26 30:08 99 117
Manveru 31:40 25:11 79 94
6098mr 32:12 36:48 114 135
koro kororareka 32:38 46:40 143 170
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:48 31:03 89 105
starstruck starstruck_au 35:03 30:09 86 102
SlumdogEngineer 35:08 15:59 45 53
alistair.boere 35:09 15:07 43 51
tyrotim tyrotim 36:37 32:53 89 105
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:47 25:44 69 82
HanS 37:06 62:57 169 201
SK42 38:20 26:36 69 82
maryht 40:30 33:37 83 98
MartinP MartinP1 45:10 57:34 127 151
profsjpayne 51:39 69:43 134 159

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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