Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28811

Date 12 January 2024
Number 28811
Day of week Friday
NITCH 111
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 5
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28811

* 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
Nathan Panning 06:05 08:23 137 123
Diskus 06:29 06:53 106 95
mistigris 06:44 07:19 108 97
lili 06:54 04:51 70 63
verlaine Verlaine 06:58 06:47 97 87
aphis99 aphis99 07:31 06:07 81 72
Magoo 07:48 05:58 76 68
cmjhutton 08:24 09:36 114 102
richard 08:50 08:45 99 89
asaldanha 09:07 13:47 151 136
chindit 09:44 10:03 103 92
glheard glh 09:59 07:42 77 69
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:17 10:34 102 91
lickert 10:43 11:48 110 99
markdobell 10:47 12:07 112 100
AlanS 10:49 13:45 127 114
keriothe_ keriothe 11:09 20:25 183 164
Deane Short Deane Short 11:10 11:22 101 90
miked1961 11:31 08:24 72 64
andy 11:33 16:30 142 127
xyster 11:49 13:19 112 100
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 16:03 134 120
Sheapey Sheapey 12:11 13:15 108 97
chriswords 12:13 11:08 91 81
David Crooks dcrooks 12:15 14:30 118 106
fuzz 12:16 13:40 111 100
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 12:29 15:40 125 112
fshephe 12:32 13:48 110 99
d.middleton 12:35 17:22 138 124
canismiser 12:44 16:25 128 115
tilbee 12:48 14:13 111 100
JimboFS 12:48 17:32 136 122
neilr neilr 12:52 12:54 100 90
Stavros Stavrolex 13:02 14:55 114 102
KenD51 13:07 11:11 85 76
Paul Bacon 13:19 16:30 123 110
samgdavies 13:22 06:24 47 42
HoneyBadger 13:23 17:47 132 118
Ben Staveley 13:25 19:20 144 129
Silva 13:27 11:49 87 78
edwards.robert1 13:40 22:01 161 145
Henry White 13:58 11:04 79 71
Groucho 14:08 20:31 145 130
CentralLine CentralLine 14:15 17:32 123 110
Tibthorpe 14:16 19:13 134 120
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:40 13:58 95 85
Emmet 14:41 16:54 115 103
LouWeed LouWeed 14:44 20:06 136 122
franceslc11 14:47 14:00 94 84
Mike Mansbridge 14:50 10:17 69 62
Semillon 15:04 15:15 101 90
Finzi 15:10 19:14 126 113
john.marshall 15:27 16:23 106 95
myles 15:31 21:09 136 122
grape 15:31 22:08 142 127
phthisis 15:34 15:37 100 90
AndyR 15:34 16:47 107 96
Peponi13 15:37 16:30 105 94
Achernar 15:48 20:01 126 113
robinh 16:04 17:32 109 98
Crucifer Crucifer 16:09 17:12 106 95
BlackburnRover 16:27 19:23 117 105
Dr Dolittle 16:33 06:04 36 32
LJCN 16:34 17:42 106 95
tapbarker 16:36 19:37 118 106
Looch 16:50 21:59 130 117
PGooden 16:58 18:53 111 100
Grestyman Grestyman 17:04 16:37 97 87
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:19 27:50 160 144
andrewlake 17:24 18:31 106 95
Craven 17:28 20:22 116 104
daulbs 17:48 16:40 93 83
Crossiant 18:01 21:48 120 108
DunPangolin 18:23 21:19 115 103
GMcD 18:47 16:00 85 76
MossDef 18:51 19:13 101 90
Encota 19:00 23:15 122 109
earlylight 19:20 21:28 111 100
Zander 19:23 26:23 136 122
uvofiz 19:28 21:25 110 99
squark 19:31 20:55 107 96
gsriordan52 19:55 20:19 102 91
pc8 20:16 26:42 131 118
Colin2355 20:19 17:56 88 79
Solver52 20:41 21:05 101 90
Hamish.S 20:45 22:43 109 98
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:07 24:27 115 103
cyrillic 21:17 27:23 128 115
UisceTe 21:23 23:41 110 99
Curarist Curarist 21:40 26:17 121 109
george.garlick 21:55 21:42 99 89
Nangle 21:57 24:11 110 99
crosswordian 22:03 22:49 103 92
Riche Riche 22:05 23:24 105 94
1234 22:16 38:11 171 154
daniel.faith 22:57 23:57 104 93
Tudds 23:06 23:33 101 90
suethepotterer 23:06 20:33 88 79
goblin 23:13 27:16 117 105
The Caffeine Kid 23:40 24:40 104 93
Brenk Brenk1 23:43 32:10 135 121
klamery4 24:17 24:10 99 89
richardCV22 24:43 24:06 97 87
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:55 22:16 89 80
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:06 26:03 103 92
stainl665 25:28 25:41 100 90
barracuda barracuda 26:08 29:31 112 100
DamienKnapma 26:20 30:59 117 105
Crippens1 26:49 37:18 139 125
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:01 25:03 92 82
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:25 28:58 105 94
timbo 27:52 35:18 126 113
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:39 32:34 113 101
phcbarnes 29:17 35:48 122 109
nekabue 29:24 38:32 131 118
Dr_Bob 29:41 34:05 114 102
gbestanley 31:52 33:29 105 94
koro kororareka 33:08 41:11 124 111
alistair.boere 33:15 54:01 162 145
Rookie 35:04 35:47 102 91
marp 35:23 41:57 118 106
joss henry 35:43 37:22 104 93
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:03 37:28 103 92
tyrotim tyrotim 36:09 39:48 110 99
boltonwanderer 37:04 46:00 124 111
HanS 37:36 58:54 156 140
jackk.larg 37:59 46:47 123 110
kapietro kapietro 39:11 47:21 120 108
Shushannah 39:53 45:56 115 103
rv_1 41:04 55:30 135 121
empty 43:52 57:09 130 117
baronrob 44:07 52:20 118 106
MartinP MartinP1 48:24 65:06 134 120
Steve Wood 49:57 68:33 137 123
profsjpayne 52:19 81:55 156 140
The Real Steve Snackman 59:30 70:59 119 107

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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