Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28793

Date 22 December 2023
Number 28793
Day of week Friday
NITCH 120
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 9
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28793

* 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 06:59 155 129
Diskus 06:25 09:41 150 125
mistigris 06:43 07:23 109 90
verlaine Verlaine 06:49 10:51 159 132
aphis99 aphis99 07:31 09:21 124 103
Paul Gilbert 07:36 07:34 99 82
cmjhutton 07:54 08:40 109 90
Contrarian3 08:03 09:56 123 102
Magoo 08:36 07:41 89 74
chindit 09:14 09:51 106 88
lickert 10:25 17:11 164 136
Kinghedger 10:28 14:01 133 110
markdobell 10:36 10:06 95 79
AlanS 10:39 13:36 127 105
Deane Short Deane Short 10:58 22:27 204 170
keriothe_ keriothe 11:04 11:26 103 85
andy 11:11 15:58 142 118
patrickcates 11:14 08:57 79 65
Heyesey 11:25 10:45 94 78
miked1961 11:26 13:54 121 100
chriswords 11:43 21:02 179 149
Sheapey Sheapey 12:02 14:39 121 100
David Crooks dcrooks 12:10 18:21 150 125
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:14 15:29 126 105
fshephe 12:14 13:13 108 90
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:26 25:32 205 170
neilr neilr 12:46 13:07 102 85
aphasic 13:11 20:44 157 130
HoneyBadger 13:15 16:18 123 102
samgdavies 13:16 09:35 72 60
edwards.robert1 13:45 15:33 113 94
Silva 13:46 13:07 95 79
LouWeed LouWeed 14:03 12:22 88 73
Groucho 14:08 18:10 128 106
JezWoolfrey 14:13 17:08 120 100
KenD51 14:16 11:59 83 69
CentralLine CentralLine 14:22 16:13 112 93
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:23 13:06 91 75
Emmet 14:26 20:50 144 120
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:37 13:45 94 78
franceslc11 14:45 19:45 133 110
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 14:47 17:16 116 96
Semillon 14:58 22:39 151 125
Finzi 15:06 16:49 111 92
johninterred Johninterred 15:08 19:28 128 106
Pootle Pootle 15:53 11:37 73 60
Peponi13 15:56 17:56 112 93
robinh 16:02 19:31 121 100
Looch 16:35 21:07 127 105
LJCN 16:36 14:24 86 71
tapbarker 16:37 22:07 133 110
andrewlake 16:46 22:11 132 110
ilan 17:03 18:26 108 90
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:10 25:44 149 124
Craven 17:19 21:16 122 101
Crossiant 18:00 28:44 159 132
Freemers 18:07 20:39 113 94
KET 18:23 21:17 115 95
Zander 18:32 21:40 116 96
earlylight 18:34 23:38 127 105
GMcD 18:42 18:22 98 81
uvofiz 18:55 22:57 121 100
Colin2355 19:46 27:15 137 114
squark 19:57 13:54 69 57
crosswordian 20:09 22:29 111 92
John Arnold 20:14 28:03 138 115
gsriordan52 20:21 28:43 141 117
pc8 20:26 31:40 154 128
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:42 21:06 101 84
endafk 20:45 24:06 116 96
LuckOfLucien 20:46 23:32 113 94
Solver52 20:49 18:16 87 72
James P Special_bitter 21:11 19:31 92 76
Leegoods 21:24 37:21 174 145
Curarist Curarist 21:30 23:59 111 92
Nangle 21:41 34:00 156 130
daniel.faith 22:38 23:04 101 84
goblin 23:31 28:29 121 100
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:35 35:20 149 124
david_ch 23:44 20:46 87 72
Tudds 23:52 20:52 87 72
klamery4 24:11 31:19 129 107
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:23 28:18 116 96
Brenk Brenk1 24:24 26:53 110 91
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:30 35:37 145 120
Corymbia Corymbia 24:31 33:33 136 113
Sheen 25:10 25:31 101 84
barracuda barracuda 25:21 38:10 150 125
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:38 30:37 119 99
DamienKnapma 25:47 31:29 122 101
chris661554 25:48 36:54 143 119
Fidelio 25:49 39:18 152 126
ulaca ulaca 26:21 40:00 151 125
timbo 28:00 29:49 106 88
Dr_Bob 28:39 30:50 107 89
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:13 41:49 143 119
JoeyC 29:30 49:35 168 140
nekabue 29:39 37:08 125 104
infinitejest 30:18 50:05 165 137
phcbarnes 30:39 15:37 50 41
gbestanley 31:08 37:14 119 99
6098mr 31:23 32:18 102 85
dosbarth 32:09 49:35 154 128
koro kororareka 32:51 35:59 109 90
bruce.johnston22 34:41 36:38 105 87
alistair.boere 34:53 25:03 71 59
Jeeves 34:56 30:49 88 73
Birdingbob 35:12 51:56 147 122
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:24 48:00 135 112
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:04 36:19 97 80
Cryptique 37:08 40:51 110 91
boltonwanderer 37:13 75:00 201 167
HanS 37:52 30:14 79 65
Shushannah 39:19 45:23 115 95
maryht 39:57 47:12 118 98
kapietro kapietro 40:01 40:35 101 84
MartinP MartinP1 46:19 85:23 184 153
Dalai Farmer 48:38 76:04 156 130
Steve Wood 49:18 40:17 81 67
CoxBurglar coxburglar 51:10 39:50 77 64
paulmcl paulmcl 51:55 68:42 132 110
kjbr 52:45 90:41 171 142

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back