Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28879

Date 01 April 2024
Number 28879
Day of week Monday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 180
Ref solvers excluded with errors 26
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28879

* 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 04:56 111 124
Jason 05:55 06:36 111 124
Diskus 06:19 06:07 96 107
lili 06:31 05:51 89 100
mistigris 06:32 05:39 86 96
hilarym 07:04 08:24 118 132
aphis99 aphis99 07:19 07:29 102 114
mauefw Mauefw 07:24 04:39 62 69
Paul Gilbert 07:26 09:39 129 144
Magoo 07:31 06:35 87 97
cmjhutton 08:08 06:07 75 84
asaldanha 09:01 08:37 95 106
boulemiche 09:12 08:46 95 106
glheard glh 09:41 11:33 119 133
chindit 09:54 08:42 87 97
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:15 10:48 105 117
markdobell 10:15 08:12 80 89
Kinghedger 10:21 07:22 71 79
scrabbler 10:23 12:03 116 130
lickert 10:26 08:54 85 95
keriothe_ keriothe 10:37 11:07 104 116
Deane Short Deane Short 10:53 08:25 77 86
AlanS 11:00 10:37 96 107
miked1961 11:07 08:43 78 87
Heyesey 11:14 09:35 85 95
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:20 15:25 136 152
andy 11:25 13:13 115 129
Umpire 11:39 09:50 84 94
chriswords 11:51 09:34 80 89
fuzz 11:56 10:05 84 94
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:58 08:55 74 83
Sheapey Sheapey 11:58 13:20 111 124
ChuckB 11:59 14:10 118 132
David Crooks dcrooks 12:06 10:01 82 92
JimboFS 12:22 10:00 80 89
HoneyBadger 12:30 09:30 76 85
fshephe 12:30 03:00 24 26
Stavros Stavrolex 12:33 18:53 150 168
John Walsh 12:45 13:40 107 120
Silva 12:55 12:17 95 106
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:08 13:07 99 111
edwards.robert1 13:30 04:28 33 37
Ben Staveley 13:32 14:06 104 116
Groucho 13:36 07:46 57 64
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:43 13:52 101 113
SimonAnthony 13:44 09:05 66 74
alexh 13:49 17:59 130 146
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:51 14:58 108 121
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:01 12:52 91 102
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:04 09:54 70 78
LouWeed LouWeed 14:14 10:39 74 83
CentralLine CentralLine 14:16 14:58 104 116
chriss 14:20 12:34 87 97
Eddddddd 14:37 17:30 119 133
Semillon 14:46 07:30 50 56
johninterred Johninterred 14:52 15:00 100 112
Finzi 14:59 14:02 93 104
RobR RobR 15:06 17:11 113 126
BlackburnRover 15:06 17:18 114 128
Pootle Pootle 15:20 16:40 108 121
phthisis 15:32 14:17 91 102
JezWoolfrey 15:35 15:03 96 107
gabrojak 15:41 11:31 73 82
LJCN 15:44 14:49 94 105
Achernar 15:52 15:52 100 112
Looch 16:02 15:00 93 104
jimwetzler 16:02 19:34 122 137
tapbarker 16:14 09:48 60 67
andrewlake 16:51 17:28 103 115
ajcauk1 16:58 17:35 103 115
ilan 17:13 18:33 107 120
Craven 17:32 14:58 85 95
DunPangolin 17:43 23:55 134 150
cmcnsmith 18:03 19:37 108 121
Encota 18:10 24:30 134 150
Freemers 18:18 15:25 84 94
earlylight 18:25 14:50 80 89
jeremy.kenyon 18:29 25:04 135 151
GMcD 18:30 11:40 63 70
tds 18:30 21:59 118 132
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:54 24:25 129 144
pterodactyl 18:56 17:55 94 105
Zander 19:07 16:16 85 95
squark 19:19 14:51 76 85
pc8 19:26 24:26 125 140
Upfisher 19:44 10:40 54 60
julian_w 19:53 22:23 112 125
gsriordan52 19:55 18:53 94 105
uvofiz 19:56 12:45 63 70
Solver52 20:10 17:22 86 96
LuckOfLucien 20:10 14:26 71 79
Hamish.S 20:13 14:03 69 77
DianeRS 20:17 15:49 77 86
rrricharrrd 20:19 23:54 117 131
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 20:25 10:32 51 57
UisceTe 20:26 22:30 110 123
jimancliffe 20:28 22:05 107 120
Pxspxs 20:34 23:26 113 126
James P Special_bitter 20:39 21:34 104 116
Jagsfan1971 20:43 17:02 82 92
Curarist Curarist 21:15 17:17 81 91
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:21 21:40 101 113
daniel.faith 22:04 17:23 78 87
The Caffeine Kid 22:08 21:49 98 110
goblin 22:15 28:10 126 141
crosswordian 22:33 23:00 101 113
Tudds 22:37 16:30 72 80
Corymbia Corymbia 22:37 21:18 94 105
Brenk Brenk1 23:36 23:44 100 112
klamery4 23:46 21:54 92 103
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:00 28:45 119 133
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:32 25:14 102 114
Terrier 24:37 21:18 86 96
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:44 26:13 105 117
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:44 26:54 108 121
chris661554 24:46 28:18 114 128
Edprof 24:51 21:31 86 96
hugapug 25:15 25:11 99 111
crucihacker 25:37 24:02 93 104
Crippens1 25:40 23:13 90 101
barracuda barracuda 26:02 31:29 120 134
Fidelio 26:09 31:01 118 132
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:21 24:48 94 105
ulaca ulaca 26:59 29:09 108 121
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:19 32:34 119 133
Yatton50 27:32 16:14 58 65
JoeyC 27:50 17:46 63 70
nekabue 28:12 24:29 86 96
Rowlie26 28:24 29:00 102 114
hipponym 28:30 35:00 122 137
JMbrow29 29:39 15:46 53 59
dosbarth 30:20 35:19 116 130
Lloyd 31:19 37:28 119 133
koro kororareka 31:49 30:19 95 106
alistair.boere 31:51 42:44 134 150
Manveru 31:51 52:30 164 184
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 34:33 34:57 101 113
starstruck starstruck_au 34:36 33:37 97 108
Birdingbob 34:55 35:12 100 112
BertieVII 35:29 28:16 79 88
simjt simjt 35:51 42:22 118 132
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 36:19 36:16 99 111
boltonwanderer 36:21 29:00 79 88
NAPASAI napasai 37:25 22:39 60 67
HanS 38:10 39:38 103 115
Shushannah 38:26 26:46 69 77
rv_1 38:33 34:26 89 100
CoxBurglar coxburglar 40:24 27:54 69 77
Cryptique 42:08 36:26 86 96
empty 43:16 35:58 83 93
Steve Wood 48:51 47:10 96 107
MartinP MartinP1 49:53 45:30 91 102
profsjpayne 50:29 22:30 44 49
The Real Steve Snackman 52:46 51:13 97 108
kjbr 53:14 56:03 105 117
paulmcl paulmcl 56:17 71:59 127 142
intentional rounding 58:58 50:23 85 95

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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