Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28958

Date 02 July 2024
Number 28958
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 85
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 17
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28958

* 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
Nathan Panning 05:42 04:27 78 91
Diskus 05:47 04:31 78 91
Jason 06:15 07:08 114 134
lili 06:26 04:25 68 80
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 04:48 74 87
mistigris 06:36 06:29 98 115
hilarym 07:05 07:42 108 127
Paul Gilbert 07:06 06:13 87 102
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 06:00 81 95
cmjhutton 07:38 04:43 61 71
richard 08:42 07:34 86 101
asaldanha 08:59 09:11 102 120
boulemiche 09:02 09:49 108 127
Contrarian3 09:06 06:52 75 88
samgdavies 09:14 07:13 78 91
glheard glh 09:26 10:29 111 130
markdobell 09:36 08:02 83 97
Umpire 09:56 08:34 86 101
Dr Dolittle 10:20 32:18 312 367
Deane Short Deane Short 10:30 11:17 107 125
HoneyBadger 10:58 08:56 81 95
miked1961 11:01 10:38 96 112
KenD51 11:11 17:28 156 183
AlanS 11:14 09:24 83 97
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 13:18 116 136
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 08:39 75 88
SimonAnthony 11:31 12:12 105 123
neilr neilr 11:37 11:10 96 112
scrabbler 11:48 09:59 84 98
andy 11:50 14:55 126 148
chriswords 11:53 09:44 81 95
David Crooks dcrooks 11:54 11:10 93 109
fuzz 12:03 14:30 120 141
Golvellius 12:14 12:31 102 120
Jim Willis 12:22 10:36 85 100
ChuckB 12:38 12:31 99 116
canismiser 12:39 11:35 91 107
JimboFS 12:48 10:42 83 97
edwards.robert1 12:52 16:44 130 152
Silva 12:58 11:40 89 104
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 09:38 72 84
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:29 14:14 105 123
Groucho 13:35 10:12 75 88
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 11:08 81 95
njnclarke 13:54 09:03 65 76
Semillon 14:02 13:43 97 114
Tibthorpe 14:08 16:32 116 136
alexh 14:13 17:14 121 142
Pootle Pootle 14:18 10:50 75 88
Crucifer Crucifer 14:27 10:41 73 85
franceslc11 14:29 11:56 82 96
Freemers 14:32 17:57 123 144
cdb_100 14:38 14:03 96 112
Finzi 14:39 13:38 93 109
Peponi13 14:44 16:01 108 127
CentralLine CentralLine 14:46 11:36 78 91
phthisis 14:56 09:55 66 77
JezWoolfrey 15:12 16:16 107 125
andrewlake 15:27 11:57 77 90
tapbarker 15:27 17:41 114 134
RobR RobR 15:35 17:34 112 131
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:37 12:30 80 94
LJCN 15:40 15:14 97 114
robinh 15:43 19:44 125 147
Achernar 15:56 14:17 89 104
Amoeba 16:13 09:26 58 68
MK76 16:19 14:31 88 103
ajcauk1 16:48 21:45 129 151
DunPangolin 16:51 17:14 102 120
earlylight 16:53 19:44 116 136
TB22 16:57 15:17 90 105
Crossiant 17:01 15:20 90 105
Jeremy S 17:20 16:35 95 111
Colin2355 17:22 12:33 72 84
Craven 17:23 19:48 113 132
PGooden 17:29 11:15 64 75
GMcD 17:35 18:42 106 124
Obrador 17:49 18:42 104 122
hopkinb hopkinb 18:13 22:29 123 144
Cookincats 18:15 17:41 96 112
LuckOfLucien 18:17 21:04 115 135
Riche Riche 18:40 15:13 81 95
pc8 18:47 19:30 103 121
martinede 18:48 21:39 115 135
Solver52 18:52 19:55 105 123
SeamusX 19:08 14:10 74 87
Zander 19:09 12:32 65 76
McBeakLives 19:12 13:31 70 82
rrricharrrd 19:14 14:55 77 90
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:23 16:03 82 96
James P Special_bitter 19:30 14:58 76 89
Curarist Curarist 19:49 15:01 75 88
Hamish.S 19:50 15:10 76 89
daniel.faith 20:00 15:05 75 88
John Arnold 20:09 13:24 66 77
kate.daly305 20:13 24:31 121 142
valerian1967 20:19 20:04 98 115
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:32 15:30 75 88
Waterloo 20:38 32:11 155 182
Corymbia Corymbia 20:41 18:09 87 102
dec 20:43 19:23 93 109
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 25:27 121 142
David Bourne 21:18 14:42 69 81
DamienKnapma 21:30 21:11 98 115
george.garlick 21:44 19:25 89 104
Leegoods 21:44 21:47 100 117
frost 21:59 18:44 85 100
david_ch 22:11 23:20 105 123
Tudds 22:39 22:02 97 114
Brenk Brenk1 22:48 23:30 103 121
goblin 22:51 27:13 119 140
1234 23:01 18:05 78 91
Terrier 23:21 17:37 75 88
Crippens1 23:23 31:28 134 157
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:52 21:27 89 104
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:06 16:32 68 80
janesa 24:32 04:24 17 20
chris661554 24:33 19:36 79 92
Fidelio 25:12 26:03 103 121
infinitejest 25:22 22:11 87 102
6098mr 25:35 18:17 71 83
Dr_Bob 25:54 21:33 83 97
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 25:59 26:58 103 121
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:03 14:33 53 62
barracuda barracuda 27:11 19:35 72 84
pvoller 28:02 22:28 80 94
Pendrov 28:30 40:57 143 168
JayEm 28:38 26:30 92 108
Winchelt 29:01 24:11 83 97
Grumpole Grumpole 29:18 47:19 161 189
Manveru 30:39 22:29 73 85
gbestanley 30:58 33:46 109 128
BertieVII 31:12 100:28 322 378
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:20 27:00 86 101
bruce.johnston22 32:38 32:42 100 117
koro kororareka 32:40 29:32 90 105
Rookie 32:42 43:16 132 155
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:10 35:07 105 123
alistair.boere 33:30 33:37 100 117
Maggot 33:42 50:41 150 176
simjt simjt 33:52 24:02 70 82
Lloyd 34:27 41:33 120 141
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:29 34:33 100 117
starstruck starstruck_au 34:52 21:03 60 70
j.stanton734 34:52 31:54 91 107
Michael S 35:24 41:00 115 135
boltonwanderer 35:26 24:00 67 78
gothick gothick 35:46 24:04 67 78
Cryptique 36:02 11:15 31 36
tyrotim tyrotim 36:14 38:40 106 124
joss henry 36:28 30:52 84 98
Shushannah 36:41 29:54 81 95
HanS 37:58 44:36 117 137
rv_1 38:05 35:09 92 108
maryht 38:36 40:34 105 123
piltdown man 39:36 37:25 94 110
empty 45:05 34:44 77 90
Steve Wood 48:23 55:08 113 132
The Real Steve Snackman 52:01 24:11 46 54

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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