Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28915

Date 13 May 2024
Number 28915
Day of week Monday
NITCH 76
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 15
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28915

* 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 04:34 04:16 93 122
Nathan Panning 06:00 04:55 81 106
lili 06:25 05:30 85 111
mistigris 06:36 05:41 86 113
mauefw Mauefw 07:09 05:09 72 94
aphis99 aphis99 07:25 06:00 80 105
cmjhutton 07:45 07:08 92 121
richard 08:35 07:28 86 113
chindit 10:09 07:17 71 93
Kinghedger 10:17 07:35 73 96
lickert 10:28 08:28 80 105
Deane Short Deane Short 10:40 06:40 62 81
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:41 10:24 97 127
keriothe_ keriothe 10:50 09:19 86 113
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:24 08:41 76 100
Sheapey Sheapey 11:33 09:07 78 102
chriswords 11:49 12:19 104 136
fshephe 12:04 05:59 49 64
Stavros Stavrolex 12:21 07:21 59 77
Henry White 12:27 10:51 87 114
ChuckB 12:40 12:38 99 130
Silva 12:56 09:06 70 92
aphasic 13:15 12:21 93 122
franceslc11 14:05 12:01 85 111
fishernick79 14:13 04:34 32 42
chriss 14:16 02:11 15 19
LouWeed LouWeed 14:17 12:32 87 114
Peponi13 14:19 15:31 108 142
Eddddddd 14:37 09:16 63 82
johninterred Johninterred 14:40 09:01 61 80
Semillon 14:41 14:33 99 130
Mike Mansbridge 14:46 02:35 17 22
myles 14:49 09:40 65 85
john.brassey 15:08 14:48 97 127
Pootle Pootle 15:24 14:06 91 119
LJCN 15:42 11:04 70 92
robinh 15:46 12:34 79 103
Squallaby 15:51 12:43 80 105
JezWoolfrey 15:53 13:35 85 111
grape 15:53 11:05 69 90
Viscomte 16:12 04:41 28 36
andrewlake 16:37 12:50 77 101
ilan 17:01 12:46 75 98
Craven 17:33 15:12 86 113
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:34 12:44 72 94
Encota 17:47 11:54 66 86
DunPangolin 17:55 10:36 59 77
Foozler 18:37 17:03 91 119
KET 18:37 05:09 27 35
DanSolo 18:40 09:43 52 68
Colin2355 19:01 14:33 76 100
kath 19:23 23:05 119 156
Cookincats 19:32 20:54 106 139
Solver52 19:32 18:58 97 127
Riche Riche 20:08 09:57 49 64
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:10 15:53 78 102
chriswestontour 20:21 16:07 79 103
Mike C 20:40 16:16 78 102
M Bennett 21:00 13:20 63 82
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:21 13:24 62 81
dec 21:23 15:53 74 97
daniel.faith 21:24 14:23 67 88
Waterloo 21:26 20:49 97 127
Corymbia Corymbia 21:35 18:42 86 113
John Arnold 21:41 19:24 89 117
george.garlick 21:58 13:44 62 81
goblin 22:33 20:00 88 115
cognominative 22:37 13:30 59 77
klamery4 23:43 19:43 83 109
chris661554 24:21 16:52 69 90
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:00 18:31 74 97
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:29 21:05 82 107
hugapug 25:40 22:29 87 114
barracuda barracuda 25:52 03:55 15 19
Fidelio 26:15 28:03 106 139
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:16 17:00 64 84
JoeyC 26:19 23:45 90 118
pvoller 26:59 25:56 96 126
nekabue 27:19 23:23 85 111
Dr_Bob 27:21 22:56 83 109
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:40 23:58 86 113
Pendrov 27:42 23:55 86 113
SlumdogEngineer 27:50 30:48 110 144
Rowlie26 28:50 14:33 50 65
hipponym 31:50 27:09 85 111
Maggot 32:32 51:05 157 206
bruce.johnston22 33:38 88:41 263 346
SK42 34:34 26:55 77 101
simjt simjt 34:41 23:25 67 88
Birdingbob 34:44 25:46 74 97
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 34:46 18:47 54 71
starstruck starstruck_au 36:22 30:36 84 110
boltonwanderer 36:40 29:00 79 103
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 37:04 25:01 67 88
Dalai Farmer 39:32 31:49 80 105
baronrob 42:50 27:01 63 82
Steve Wood 49:17 38:59 79 103
MartinP MartinP1 51:45 30:53 59 77
The Mighty Salmon 55:32 51:17 92 121
Masha 57:09 62:59 110 144

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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