Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28858

Date 07 March 2024
Number 28858
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 102
Count of ref solvers 72
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28858

* 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
Jason 05:55 05:51 98 96
Diskus 06:19 05:31 87 85
lili 06:31 14:55 228 223
mistigris 06:32 05:40 86 84
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 06:32 96 94
aphis99 aphis99 07:19 07:42 105 102
Paul Gilbert 07:26 08:18 111 108
Magoo 07:31 06:25 85 83
cmjhutton 08:08 06:02 74 72
richard 08:54 08:47 98 96
asaldanha 09:01 09:20 103 100
glheard glh 09:41 10:12 105 102
Dr Dolittle 09:48 05:42 58 56
markdobell 10:15 08:55 86 84
Kinghedger 10:21 10:18 99 97
scrabbler 10:23 15:16 147 144
lickert 10:26 11:39 111 108
keriothe_ keriothe 10:37 14:28 136 133
AlanS 11:00 10:17 93 91
samgdavies 11:07 08:13 73 71
miked1961 11:07 11:37 104 101
Heyesey 11:14 14:17 127 124
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:20 12:04 106 103
andy 11:25 13:56 122 119
Golvellius 11:25 20:08 176 172
xyster 11:29 16:18 141 138
chriswords 11:51 12:09 102 100
fuzz 11:56 16:38 139 136
Sheapey Sheapey 11:58 10:46 89 87
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:58 10:32 88 86
David Crooks dcrooks 12:06 12:24 102 100
JimboFS 12:22 21:42 175 171
fshephe 12:30 12:45 102 100
HoneyBadger 12:30 08:55 71 69
Stavros Stavrolex 12:33 13:11 105 102
Silva 12:55 15:15 118 115
Henry White 13:05 14:03 107 104
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:08 11:17 85 83
tilbee 13:17 14:07 106 103
edwards.robert1 13:30 13:41 101 99
Ben Staveley 13:32 12:42 93 91
Groucho 13:36 18:24 135 132
Tibthorpe 13:37 16:17 119 116
SimonAnthony 13:44 14:33 105 102
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:51 13:54 100 98
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:01 13:42 97 95
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:04 11:08 79 77
LouWeed LouWeed 14:14 14:51 104 101
CentralLine CentralLine 14:16 15:05 105 102
chriss 14:20 11:48 82 80
franceslc11 14:26 15:58 110 107
Eddddddd 14:37 14:44 100 98
Semillon 14:46 13:21 90 88
howardwilde1 14:55 18:15 122 119
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 14:55 19:12 128 125
Finzi 14:59 17:12 114 111
BlackburnRover 15:06 17:34 116 113
john.brassey 15:11 12:40 83 81
phthisis 15:32 18:46 120 117
JezWoolfrey 15:35 26:58 173 169
robinh 15:40 17:47 113 110
Achernar 15:52 19:34 123 120
MK76 15:58 18:20 114 111
zinzan 16:00 17:52 111 108
Looch 16:02 13:59 87 85
jimwetzler 16:02 21:29 133 130
tapbarker 16:14 14:19 88 86
monkfish 16:36 21:54 131 128
andrewlake 16:51 18:37 110 107
PGooden 16:54 15:31 91 89
Craven 17:32 21:34 123 120
KET 17:39 23:20 132 129
Freemers 18:18 16:58 92 90
Cookincats 18:18 29:11 159 155
jeremy.kenyon 18:29 18:07 98 96
GMcD 18:30 19:27 105 102
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:54 25:43 136 133
pterodactyl 18:56 16:32 87 85
Andrew Whiffin 19:06 27:35 144 141
Zander 19:07 29:06 152 149
squark 19:19 26:11 135 132
pc8 19:26 27:24 140 137
julian_w 19:53 17:03 85 83
gsriordan52 19:55 23:20 117 114
npweston 19:58 24:12 121 118
Colin2355 20:06 17:06 85 83
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:07 26:02 129 126
cognominative 20:09 23:17 115 112
Solver52 20:10 19:33 96 94
DanSolo 20:12 30:13 149 146
Hamish.S 20:13 21:40 107 104
Swanny 20:35 24:54 120 117
James P Special_bitter 20:39 25:45 124 121
Jagsfan1971 20:43 23:18 112 109
Nangle 21:01 19:20 91 89
Curarist Curarist 21:15 30:14 142 139
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:21 16:18 76 74
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:34 22:53 106 103
Waterloo 21:52 22:38 103 100
Rod B 21:59 37:55 172 168
daniel.faith 22:04 19:39 89 87
goblin 22:15 20:17 91 89
george.garlick 22:17 26:08 117 114
crosswordian 22:33 21:36 95 93
Tudds 22:37 21:27 94 92
Corymbia Corymbia 22:37 20:25 90 88
richardCV22 23:04 23:34 102 100
McBeak McBeak 23:11 20:25 88 86
Brenk Brenk1 23:36 25:27 107 104
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:00 25:32 106 103
timbo 24:19 28:59 119 116
stainl665 24:22 29:44 122 119
chris661554 24:46 24:39 99 97
DamienKnapma 24:50 19:41 79 77
crucihacker 25:37 26:37 103 100
Crippens1 25:40 35:09 136 133
Fidelio 26:09 42:11 161 157
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:21 30:59 117 114
brian.mcnamara 26:45 38:00 142 139
ulaca ulaca 26:59 39:59 148 145
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:19 40:28 148 145
Yatton50 27:32 27:03 98 96
nekabue 28:12 34:34 122 119
Rowlie26 28:24 31:35 111 108
hipponym 28:30 47:09 165 161
JMbrow29 29:39 30:39 103 100
symbenall2 29:45 29:32 99 97
Winchelt 30:48 26:47 86 84
Lloyd 31:19 78:05 249 244
koro kororareka 31:49 33:09 104 101
Manveru 31:51 35:32 111 108
alistair.boere 31:51 48:28 152 149
rosselliot 32:27 66:03 203 199
bruce.johnston22 33:17 32:15 96 94
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 34:33 43:22 125 122
starstruck starstruck_au 34:36 50:25 145 142
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:19 61:43 169 165
boltonwanderer 36:21 34:00 93 91
HanS 38:10 39:12 102 100
kapietro kapietro 38:44 36:29 94 92
Cryptique 42:08 39:54 94 92
Dalai Farmer 43:16 70:38 163 159
MartinP MartinP1 49:53 67:30 135 132
The Real Steve Snackman 52:46 68:17 129 126
intentional rounding 58:58 55:28 94 92

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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