Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28959

Date 03 July 2024
Number 28959
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 109
Count of ref solvers 69
Ref solvers excluded with errors 11
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28959

* 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
hazeltearne 04:22 32:01 733 672
Diskus 05:47 06:48 117 107
Jason 06:15 04:43 75 68
lili 06:26 07:06 110 100
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 08:40 133 122
mistigris 06:36 11:30 174 159
Paul Gilbert 07:06 06:10 86 78
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 08:17 112 102
richard 08:42 07:41 88 80
asaldanha 08:59 08:11 91 83
glheard glh 09:26 10:19 109 100
markdobell 09:36 10:22 107 98
chindit 09:48 11:11 114 104
Umpire 09:56 08:37 86 78
Kinghedger 10:07 10:18 101 92
Dr Dolittle 10:20 31:26 304 278
Deane Short Deane Short 10:30 09:29 90 82
lickert 10:32 11:28 108 99
HoneyBadger 10:58 13:12 120 110
miked1961 11:01 15:25 139 127
KenD51 11:11 12:53 115 105
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 22:22 195 178
Heyesey 11:27 10:32 91 83
Morphosis 11:28 11:57 104 95
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 12:17 107 98
SimonAnthony 11:31 12:58 112 102
neilr neilr 11:37 13:41 117 107
fshephe 11:37 10:57 94 86
andy 11:50 12:45 107 98
David Crooks dcrooks 11:54 14:13 119 109
fuzz 12:03 18:29 153 140
Golvellius 12:14 11:30 94 86
JimboFS 12:48 15:14 119 109
tilbee 12:51 13:16 103 94
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 15:11 114 104
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:29 17:49 132 121
Groucho 13:35 11:18 83 76
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 12:12 89 81
Semillon 14:02 19:01 135 123
Tibthorpe 14:08 17:29 123 112
alexh 14:13 17:09 120 110
Pootle Pootle 14:18 18:40 130 119
franceslc11 14:29 18:17 126 115
Freemers 14:32 16:51 115 105
cdb_100 14:38 17:58 122 111
Finzi 14:39 16:04 109 100
Peponi13 14:44 14:13 96 88
BlackburnRover 14:47 16:53 114 104
andrewlake 15:27 22:06 143 131
tapbarker 15:27 19:53 128 117
Looch 15:33 16:30 106 97
RobR RobR 15:35 11:40 74 67
zinzan 15:37 20:55 133 122
LJCN 15:40 22:26 143 131
robinh 15:43 18:28 117 107
daulbs 15:51 16:18 102 93
Amoeba 16:13 14:42 90 82
MK76 16:19 21:00 128 117
ilan 16:32 15:41 94 86
Crossiant 17:01 16:19 95 87
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:14 15:14 88 80
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 24:09 139 127
Jeremy S 17:20 17:36 101 92
Colin2355 17:22 18:35 107 98
Craven 17:23 17:59 103 94
GMcD 17:35 20:31 116 106
DanSolo 18:15 21:26 117 107
LuckOfLucien 18:17 22:18 121 111
Andrew Whiffin 18:30 26:20 142 130
Mike C 18:38 20:17 108 99
Riche Riche 18:40 17:59 96 88
pc8 18:47 19:31 103 94
martinede 18:48 18:45 99 90
Solver52 18:52 22:58 121 111
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:58 12:51 67 61
julian_w 19:01 21:22 112 102
Zander 19:09 25:06 131 120
McBeakLives 19:12 24:10 125 114
James P Special_bitter 19:30 16:19 83 76
UisceTe 19:43 18:17 92 84
Hamish.S 19:50 22:10 111 101
gsriordan52 19:57 27:02 135 123
Grestyman Grestyman 19:58 12:30 62 56
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 20:12 17:29 86 78
uvofiz 20:37 21:49 105 96
Corymbia Corymbia 20:41 22:37 109 100
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 24:54 118 108
george.garlick 21:44 27:01 124 113
crosswordian 21:58 24:52 113 103
david_ch 22:11 29:30 132 121
richardCV22 22:30 21:42 96 88
luxtonj61 22:36 15:30 68 62
goblin 22:51 25:25 111 101
rt51 23:02 15:58 69 63
Crippens1 23:23 31:24 134 122
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:39 24:55 105 96
Edprof 24:04 21:08 87 79
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:06 20:31 85 77
chris661554 24:33 40:49 166 152
klamery4 24:44 20:16 81 74
Fidelio 25:12 25:09 99 90
infinitejest 25:22 25:26 100 91
6098mr 25:35 25:30 99 90
Dr_Bob 25:54 31:49 122 111
crucihacker 25:55 27:39 106 97
Gussie 25:58 30:27 117 107
nekabue 27:01 37:47 139 127
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:03 37:17 137 125
Rowlie26 27:08 32:29 119 109
barracuda barracuda 27:11 25:15 92 84
ulaca ulaca 27:36 41:20 149 136
NAPASAI napasai 28:03 35:19 125 114
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:21 36:28 128 117
Winchelt 29:01 32:59 113 103
Grumpole Grumpole 29:18 36:26 124 113
SK42 30:05 44:28 147 134
Jeeves 30:24 28:50 94 86
gbestanley 30:58 36:11 116 106
BertieVII 31:12 30:33 97 88
koro kororareka 32:40 39:01 119 109
ofarrell 33:05 43:13 130 119
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:10 34:16 103 94
alistair.boere 33:30 35:59 107 98
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:29 40:07 116 106
j.stanton734 34:52 46:53 134 122
boltonwanderer 35:26 34:00 95 87
tyrotim tyrotim 36:14 41:24 114 104
joss henry 36:28 42:22 116 106
Shushannah 36:41 38:14 104 95
hydrochoos hydrochoos 37:54 55:00 145 133
HanS 37:58 52:58 139 127
piltdown man 39:36 32:39 82 75
Troothful 39:39 26:48 67 61
jackk.larg 40:10 42:14 105 96
empty 45:05 40:23 89 81
MartinP MartinP1 49:30 81:58 165 151
The Real Steve Snackman 52:01 28:39 55 50
profsjpayne 52:41 18:59 36 33
intentional rounding 52:53 32:12 60 55

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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