Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28853

Date 01 March 2024
Number 28853
Day of week Friday
NITCH 97
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28853

* 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 04:26 05:44 129 132
Jason 05:55 08:26 142 146
Diskus 06:19 05:18 83 85
mistigris 06:32 06:42 102 105
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 05:46 85 87
hilarym 07:04 07:49 110 113
aphis99 aphis99 07:19 08:18 113 116
Magoo 07:31 05:08 68 70
cmjhutton 08:08 06:19 77 79
asaldanha 09:01 09:25 104 107
boulemiche 09:12 09:02 98 101
Dr Dolittle 09:48 06:24 65 67
chindit 09:54 08:16 83 85
markdobell 10:15 08:33 83 85
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:15 13:31 131 135
lickert 10:26 08:03 77 79
keriothe_ keriothe 10:37 10:41 100 103
Deane Short Deane Short 10:53 11:35 106 109
miked1961 11:07 10:53 97 100
tiggis 11:08 13:04 117 120
Heyesey 11:14 12:05 107 110
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:20 10:27 92 94
Golvellius 11:25 14:44 129 132
fuzz 11:56 10:22 86 88
Sheapey Sheapey 11:58 09:40 80 82
ChuckB 11:59 13:25 111 114
David Crooks dcrooks 12:06 10:13 84 86
JimboFS 12:22 12:00 97 100
neilr neilr 12:23 08:35 69 71
canismiser 12:30 15:29 123 126
fshephe 12:30 15:01 120 123
HoneyBadger 12:30 16:09 129 132
John Walsh 12:45 13:46 107 110
Mike Mansbridge 12:54 05:50 45 46
Silva 12:55 11:02 85 87
Henry White 13:05 11:16 86 88
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:08 18:24 140 144
edwards.robert1 13:30 13:22 99 102
Groucho 13:36 10:12 75 77
Tibthorpe 13:37 13:27 98 101
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:43 15:25 112 115
alexh 13:49 19:22 140 144
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:01 11:56 85 87
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:04 25:35 181 186
CentralLine CentralLine 14:16 16:27 115 118
chriss 14:20 15:05 105 108
franceslc11 14:26 14:01 97 100
Eddddddd 14:37 10:03 68 70
myles 14:41 17:56 122 125
Semillon 14:46 13:59 94 96
johninterred Johninterred 14:52 12:28 83 85
Crucifer Crucifer 14:55 11:24 76 78
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 14:55 20:34 137 141
Finzi 14:59 17:49 118 121
Aloysius 15:02 18:55 125 128
BlackburnRover 15:06 14:36 96 98
Pootle Pootle 15:20 11:12 73 75
phthisis 15:32 10:55 70 72
robinh 15:40 17:03 108 111
LJCN 15:44 18:24 116 119
MK76 15:58 11:06 69 71
jimwetzler 16:02 20:01 124 127
tapbarker 16:14 17:18 106 109
ajcauk1 16:58 19:40 115 118
Crossiant 17:12 12:32 72 74
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:26 17:26 100 103
Craven 17:32 17:47 101 104
Grestyman Grestyman 17:54 24:11 135 139
Gallion Fish 18:02 18:04 100 103
Encota 18:10 13:03 71 73
Freemers 18:18 19:39 107 110
rupes 18:19 19:20 105 108
GMcD 18:30 13:50 74 76
tds 18:30 20:25 110 113
pterodactyl 18:56 18:42 98 101
Andrew Whiffin 19:06 18:45 98 101
Zander 19:07 19:58 104 107
pc8 19:26 19:18 99 102
Upfisher 19:44 22:26 113 116
julian_w 19:53 19:14 96 98
gsriordan52 19:55 17:57 90 92
npweston 19:58 19:07 95 97
hopkinb hopkinb 20:05 19:45 98 101
Colin2355 20:06 17:47 88 90
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:07 23:55 118 121
Solver52 20:10 17:17 85 87
DianeRS 20:17 22:51 112 115
rrricharrrd 20:19 16:05 79 81
James P Special_bitter 20:39 19:07 92 94
Mike C 20:49 19:58 95 97
valerian1967 21:00 20:10 96 98
Curarist Curarist 21:15 23:36 111 114
John Arnold 21:19 27:32 129 132
dec 21:44 23:02 105 108
Leegoods 21:56 21:12 96 98
Rod B 21:59 27:08 123 126
daniel.faith 22:04 24:30 111 114
goblin 22:15 19:51 89 91
crosswordian 22:33 22:48 101 104
1234 22:55 20:03 87 89
richardCV22 23:04 29:02 125 128
McBeak McBeak 23:11 15:52 68 70
david_ch 23:23 26:11 111 114
Brenk Brenk1 23:36 17:10 72 74
timbo 24:19 35:21 145 149
stainl665 24:22 23:54 98 101
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:32 25:40 104 107
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:44 29:18 118 121
chris661554 24:46 27:21 110 113
Crippens1 25:40 33:45 131 135
barracuda barracuda 26:02 28:00 107 110
Fidelio 26:09 31:09 119 122
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:21 30:19 115 118
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:54 26:35 98 101
ulaca ulaca 26:59 22:23 82 84
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:19 23:52 87 89
nekabue 28:12 24:06 85 87
hipponym 28:30 33:48 118 121
Dr_Bob 29:02 31:25 108 111
RogerC 29:16 32:40 111 114
Gussie 29:49 29:17 98 101
Winchelt 30:48 34:51 113 116
koro kororareka 31:49 29:49 93 95
alistair.boere 31:51 25:56 81 83
Manveru 31:51 28:55 90 92
gbestanley 32:15 39:42 123 126
rosselliot 32:27 37:32 115 118
bruce.johnston22 33:17 24:43 74 76
Rookie 34:14 24:45 72 74
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 34:33 33:53 98 101
starstruck starstruck_au 34:36 35:08 101 104
BertieVII 35:29 33:26 94 96
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:19 45:33 125 128
boltonwanderer 36:21 54:00 148 152
HanS 38:10 28:11 73 75
SK42 38:39 31:32 81 83
Cryptique 42:08 31:23 74 76
Dalai Farmer 43:16 33:27 77 79
empty 43:16 48:47 112 115
Steve Wood 48:51 49:02 100 103
MartinP MartinP1 49:53 63:07 126 129
profsjpayne 50:29 108:15 214 220
The Real Steve Snackman 52:46 55:11 104 107

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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