Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28861

Date 11 March 2024
Number 28861
Day of week Monday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28861

* 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 04:20 97 108
Jason 05:55 06:10 104 116
Nathan Panning 06:02 05:06 84 94
lili 06:31 05:43 87 97
mistigris 06:32 06:25 98 110
verlaine Verlaine 06:47 06:22 93 104
cmjhutton 08:08 07:35 93 104
asaldanha 09:01 10:10 112 125
boulemiche 09:12 09:25 102 114
glheard glh 09:41 09:00 92 103
Dr Dolittle 09:48 04:49 49 55
chindit 09:54 07:35 76 85
markdobell 10:15 08:58 87 97
lickert 10:26 09:01 86 96
keriothe_ keriothe 10:37 10:38 100 112
AlanS 11:00 07:37 69 77
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:20 15:08 133 149
andy 11:25 11:37 101 113
Golvellius 11:25 17:23 152 170
KenD51 11:31 22:32 195 219
Umpire 11:39 12:21 106 119
fuzz 11:56 13:26 112 125
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:58 10:18 86 96
Sheapey Sheapey 11:58 10:07 84 94
JimboFS 12:22 11:17 91 102
neilr neilr 12:23 12:02 97 108
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 12:30 07:54 63 70
canismiser 12:30 09:50 78 87
fshephe 12:30 09:40 77 86
Stavros Stavrolex 12:33 10:56 87 97
Silva 12:55 16:08 124 139
Henry White 13:05 09:21 71 79
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:08 08:53 67 75
tilbee 13:17 15:55 119 133
edwards.robert1 13:30 15:29 114 128
Groucho 13:36 10:53 80 89
Tibthorpe 13:37 13:31 99 111
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:43 11:38 84 94
SimonAnthony 13:44 11:48 85 95
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:51 14:38 105 117
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:01 11:13 80 89
LouWeed LouWeed 14:14 12:08 85 95
franceslc11 14:26 17:06 118 132
Eddddddd 14:37 17:43 121 135
Semillon 14:46 17:21 117 131
johninterred Johninterred 14:52 12:46 85 95
Crucifer Crucifer 14:55 13:22 89 100
howardwilde1 14:55 10:11 68 76
Finzi 14:59 13:36 90 101
BlackburnRover 15:06 13:49 91 102
RobR RobR 15:06 11:35 76 85
john.brassey 15:11 10:43 70 78
GeorgeTz 15:14 13:40 89 100
Pootle Pootle 15:20 09:19 60 67
phthisis 15:32 14:11 91 102
LJCN 15:44 13:43 87 97
Achernar 15:52 15:35 98 110
MK76 15:58 16:40 104 116
jimwetzler 16:02 17:25 108 121
tapbarker 16:14 14:38 90 101
andrewlake 16:51 14:35 86 96
PGooden 16:54 17:45 105 117
daulbs 16:58 12:41 74 83
Crossiant 17:12 17:46 103 115
Craven 17:32 19:20 110 123
KET 17:39 22:57 130 146
Grestyman Grestyman 17:54 23:13 129 144
Gallion Fish 18:02 16:49 93 104
cmcnsmith 18:03 19:42 109 122
Encota 18:10 13:45 75 84
Freemers 18:18 19:11 104 116
earlylight 18:25 20:07 109 122
GMcD 18:30 18:27 99 111
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:54 20:05 106 119
pterodactyl 18:56 21:04 111 124
Andrew Whiffin 19:06 21:50 114 128
Zander 19:07 14:22 75 84
squark 19:19 23:26 121 135
pc8 19:26 12:04 62 69
David Bourne 19:31 20:33 105 117
Upfisher 19:44 14:43 74 83
uvofiz 19:56 23:51 119 133
npweston 19:58 23:07 115 129
Colin2355 20:06 16:02 79 88
LuckOfLucien 20:10 21:46 107 120
rrricharrrd 20:19 18:46 92 103
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 20:25 20:06 98 110
Pxspxs 20:34 21:58 106 119
Swanny 20:35 20:41 100 112
James P Special_bitter 20:39 18:20 88 98
Jagsfan1971 20:43 24:48 119 133
Nangle 21:01 27:51 132 148
Curarist Curarist 21:15 25:40 120 134
John Arnold 21:19 21:18 99 111
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:21 17:50 83 93
dec 21:44 17:37 81 91
Waterloo 21:52 15:46 72 80
Rod B 21:59 33:52 154 173
daniel.faith 22:04 15:17 69 77
goblin 22:15 17:31 78 87
cyrillic 22:21 16:17 72 80
crosswordian 22:33 21:44 96 107
Tudds 22:37 28:12 124 139
Corymbia Corymbia 22:37 22:29 99 111
richardCV22 23:04 18:53 81 91
McBeak McBeak 23:11 37:36 162 182
david_ch 23:23 21:10 90 101
Brenk Brenk1 23:36 29:24 124 139
klamery4 23:46 25:45 108 121
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:00 28:57 120 134
timbo 24:19 34:30 141 158
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:32 30:41 125 140
Terrier 24:37 19:02 77 86
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:44 27:24 110 123
chris661554 24:46 20:04 81 91
tony the butcher montana 25:54 30:52 119 133
barracuda barracuda 26:02 25:42 98 110
Fidelio 26:09 18:57 72 80
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:21 23:26 88 98
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:54 19:00 70 78
ulaca ulaca 26:59 21:02 77 86
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:19 23:06 84 94
Yatton50 27:32 29:01 105 117
nekabue 28:12 24:43 87 97
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 28:24 43:03 151 169
Dr_Bob 29:02 26:05 89 100
JMbrow29 29:39 36:17 122 137
symbenall2 29:45 28:59 97 108
Winchelt 30:48 26:16 85 95
koro kororareka 31:49 32:27 101 113
SlumdogEngineer 31:50 27:17 85 95
Manveru 31:51 44:42 140 157
alistair.boere 31:51 36:11 113 126
gbestanley 32:15 29:01 89 100
bruce.johnston22 33:17 42:21 127 142
Grumpole Grumpole 33:30 20:01 59 66
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 34:33 28:58 83 93
tyrotim tyrotim 34:54 39:24 112 125
joss henry 35:01 35:39 101 113
vinyl12345 vinyl1 35:29 12:00 33 37
boltonwanderer 36:21 34:00 93 104
rv_1 38:33 44:04 114 128
SK42 38:39 25:43 66 74
empty 43:16 42:44 98 110
MartinP MartinP1 49:53 55:53 112 125
The Real Steve Snackman 52:46 78:50 149 167

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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