Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28961

Date 05 July 2024
Number 28961
Day of week Friday
NITCH 147
Count of ref solvers 71
Ref solvers excluded with errors 7
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28961

* 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 39:53 913 621
Diskus 05:47 09:21 161 109
Jason 06:15 11:06 177 120
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 07:17 112 76
Magoo 06:31 07:37 116 78
mistigris 06:36 14:18 216 146
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 09:59 136 92
cmjhutton 07:38 09:02 118 80
asaldanha 08:59 12:05 134 91
markdobell 09:36 12:52 134 91
chindit 09:48 17:55 182 123
Umpire 09:56 17:45 178 121
Kinghedger 10:07 19:21 191 129
Dr Dolittle 10:20 49:35 479 325
lickert 10:32 14:48 140 95
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:58 12:45 116 78
HoneyBadger 10:58 14:22 131 89
KenD51 11:11 08:38 77 52
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 22:34 197 134
Morphosis 11:28 17:20 151 102
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 17:54 156 106
fshephe 11:37 15:39 134 91
andy 11:50 17:59 151 102
chriswords 11:53 12:45 107 72
fuzz 12:03 18:53 156 106
Golvellius 12:14 15:51 129 87
JimboFS 12:48 33:58 265 180
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 12:50 22:12 172 117
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 21:58 164 111
michaelbell53 13:20 13:41 102 69
Groucho 13:35 21:36 159 108
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 21:31 157 106
Ben Staveley 13:42 19:13 140 95
Semillon 14:02 21:04 150 102
Tibthorpe 14:08 19:34 138 93
franceslc11 14:29 23:50 164 111
Freemers 14:32 12:48 88 59
cdb_100 14:38 27:57 191 129
Finzi 14:39 20:56 142 96
CentralLine CentralLine 14:46 27:19 184 125
andrewlake 15:27 18:48 121 82
tapbarker 15:27 23:48 154 104
Looch 15:33 21:14 136 92
LJCN 15:40 28:37 182 123
robinh 15:43 21:10 134 91
ilan 16:32 21:34 130 88
earlylight 16:53 23:23 138 93
Encota 17:00 25:52 152 103
Crossiant 17:01 40:10 236 160
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 20:29 118 80
PGooden 17:29 19:27 111 75
GMcD 17:35 36:13 205 139
LuckOfLucien 18:17 31:19 171 116
KET 18:21 24:03 131 89
Mike C 18:38 21:35 115 78
pc8 18:47 24:37 131 89
Solver52 18:52 23:18 123 83
Zander 19:09 45:42 238 161
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:23 38:09 196 133
Upfisher 19:27 31:44 163 110
Curarist Curarist 19:49 31:01 156 106
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 20:12 99:58 494 336
Corymbia Corymbia 20:41 37:01 178 121
dec 20:43 26:20 127 86
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 30:54 147 100
David Bourne 21:18 29:02 136 92
george.garlick 21:44 27:32 126 85
richardCV22 22:30 26:11 116 78
luxtonj61 22:36 34:13 151 102
Tudds 22:39 44:30 196 133
Brenk Brenk1 22:48 34:35 151 102
goblin 22:51 30:02 131 89
rt51 23:02 16:54 73 49
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:39 34:03 143 97
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:52 31:42 132 89
chris661554 24:33 29:51 121 82
klamery4 24:44 26:01 105 71
Yatton50 25:47 36:41 142 96
Gussie 25:58 58:50 226 153
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 25:59 40:44 156 106
nekabue 27:01 59:51 221 150
barracuda barracuda 27:11 54:43 201 136
ulaca ulaca 27:36 12:30 45 30
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:21 59:42 210 142
RogerC 30:10 40:28 134 91
Jeeves 30:24 45:20 149 101
Manveru 30:39 43:09 140 95
gbestanley 30:58 24:06 77 52
BertieVII 31:12 38:41 123 83
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:20 46:00 146 99
koro kororareka 32:40 44:55 137 93
Rookie 32:42 51:28 157 106
ofarrell 33:05 52:33 158 107
alistair.boere 33:30 43:23 129 87
Birdingbob 34:32 45:12 130 88
j.stanton734 34:52 57:39 165 112
starstruck starstruck_au 34:52 81:29 233 158
Cryptique 36:02 33:45 93 63
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:48 45:23 120 81
HanS 37:58 33:53 89 60
Troothful 39:39 54:05 136 92
baronrob 43:16 81:42 188 127
empty 45:05 70:22 156 106
Steve Wood 48:23 48:12 99 67
MartinP MartinP1 49:30 63:00 127 86
The Real Steve Snackman 52:01 47:24 91 61
intentional rounding 52:53 53:10 100 68
The Mighty Salmon 56:29 71:21 126 85

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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