Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28781

Date 08 December 2023
Number 28781
Day of week Friday
NITCH 128
Count of ref solvers 57
Ref solvers excluded with errors 21
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28781

* 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 04:30 08:20 185 144
Mikemon 05:31 05:57 107 83
Diskus 06:25 10:14 159 124
verlaine Verlaine 06:49 12:07 177 138
mauefw Mauefw 07:27 07:49 104 81
cmjhutton 07:54 08:31 107 83
Contrarian3 08:03 10:20 128 100
Magoo 08:36 06:29 75 58
richard 08:58 08:38 96 75
asaldanha 09:07 08:01 87 67
chindit 09:14 20:39 223 174
lickert 10:25 17:27 167 130
Kinghedger 10:28 16:35 158 123
markdobell 10:36 14:29 136 106
AlanS 10:39 16:29 154 120
Deane Short Deane Short 10:58 14:12 129 100
keriothe_ keriothe 11:04 13:10 118 92
Heyesey 11:25 11:36 101 78
chriswords 11:43 18:23 156 121
trux trux20 11:47 20:16 171 133
xyster 11:50 14:23 121 94
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:50 17:50 150 117
fuzz 11:52 23:36 198 154
Sheapey Sheapey 12:02 19:07 158 123
David Crooks dcrooks 12:10 21:11 174 135
fshephe 12:14 15:01 122 95
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:14 17:11 140 109
tilbee 12:23 16:46 135 105
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:26 21:03 169 132
JimboFS 12:37 18:27 146 114
canismiser 12:44 14:50 116 90
Ben Staveley 12:55 20:09 156 121
John Walsh 13:04 16:50 128 100
HoneyBadger 13:15 18:15 137 107
Stavros Stavrolex 13:15 19:19 145 113
edwards.robert1 13:45 10:30 76 59
Henry White 13:49 20:48 150 117
LouWeed LouWeed 14:03 17:36 125 97
Tibthorpe 14:12 16:44 117 91
JezWoolfrey 14:13 24:05 169 132
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 14:14 16:57 119 92
KenD51 14:16 03:51 26 20
Derek Harrison 14:25 06:25 44 34
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:37 17:47 121 94
franceslc11 14:45 24:59 169 132
Semillon 14:58 18:36 124 96
AndyR 15:03 16:11 107 83
johninterred Johninterred 15:08 21:16 140 109
Achernar 15:12 17:49 117 91
Umpire 15:19 11:38 75 58
gabrojak 15:49 21:13 134 104
Pootle Pootle 15:53 21:13 133 103
robinh 16:02 21:33 134 104
PGooden 16:03 19:50 123 96
njnclarke 16:22 22:26 137 107
LJCN 16:36 17:02 102 79
tapbarker 16:37 19:26 116 90
andrewlake 16:46 19:54 118 92
BlackburnRover 16:46 14:33 86 67
Grestyman Grestyman 16:53 29:03 172 134
Ease This Jam 17:00 15:00 88 68
Craven 17:19 19:28 112 87
Crossiant 18:00 22:13 123 96
Freemers 18:07 19:41 108 84
Foozler 18:27 24:41 133 103
cmcnsmith 18:28 18:54 102 79
pterodactyl 18:31 26:24 142 110
Zander 18:32 26:50 144 112
earlylight 18:34 19:08 103 80
GMcD 18:42 35:12 188 146
uvofiz 18:55 26:46 141 110
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:30 24:44 126 98
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 19:38 30:00 152 118
crosswordian 20:09 20:13 100 78
frost 20:09 23:42 117 91
John Arnold 20:14 34:39 171 133
pc8 20:26 25:47 126 98
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:42 27:26 132 103
endafk 20:45 20:22 98 76
LuckOfLucien 20:46 28:03 135 105
Solver52 20:49 21:33 103 80
Hamish.S 20:50 26:35 127 99
DanSolo 21:06 28:26 134 104
James P Special_bitter 21:11 35:39 168 131
Dvynys dvynys 21:22 25:04 117 91
Leegoods 21:24 26:27 123 96
Curarist Curarist 21:30 17:44 82 64
hopkinb hopkinb 21:42 29:51 137 107
daniel.faith 22:38 30:20 134 104
1234 22:44 38:06 167 130
Waterloo 23:19 23:45 101 78
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 23:21 15:09 64 50
goblin 23:31 25:09 106 82
david_ch 23:44 28:30 120 93
hugh schofield Leskoffer 23:50 43:19 181 141
Tudds 23:52 27:04 113 88
McBeak McBeak 23:55 31:10 130 101
tony the butcher montana 24:06 35:23 146 114
klamery4 24:11 27:35 114 89
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:23 30:42 125 97
Brenk Brenk1 24:24 55:30 227 177
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:30 27:55 113 88
Corymbia Corymbia 24:31 31:29 128 100
Sheen 25:10 24:20 96 75
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:38 28:39 111 86
chris661554 25:48 24:00 93 72
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:56 36:22 135 105
timbo 28:00 31:52 113 88
Speedcop2 28:52 30:04 104 81
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:13 36:18 124 96
Lloyd 30:35 44:06 144 112
phcbarnes 30:39 39:49 129 100
Manveru 31:23 41:17 131 102
6098mr 31:23 27:02 86 67
koro kororareka 32:51 30:28 92 71
BertieVII 32:51 36:02 109 85
tyrotim tyrotim 36:08 48:51 135 105
jackk.larg 36:29 49:06 134 104
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:04 36:03 97 75
Cryptique 37:08 41:27 111 86
Winchelt618 37:21 27:55 74 57
HanS 37:52 48:24 127 99
Rookie 38:03 28:36 75 58
Shushannah 39:19 55:59 142 110
NAPASAI napasai 39:55 29:48 74 57
maryht 39:57 44:45 112 87
empty 43:00 50:55 118 92
MartinP MartinP1 46:19 70:52 153 119
Steve Wood 49:18 55:27 112 87
profsjpayne 50:04 53:41 107 83
CoxBurglar coxburglar 51:10 38:20 74 57
paulmcl paulmcl 51:55 83:09 160 125

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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