Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28967

Date 12 July 2024
Number 28967
Day of week Friday
NITCH 119
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28967

* 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 31:57 731 614
Jason 06:15 11:32 184 154
mistigris 06:36 09:11 139 116
Paul Gilbert 07:06 09:44 137 115
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 05:28 74 62
cmjhutton 07:38 07:17 95 79
richard 08:42 10:14 117 98
markdobell 09:36 13:36 141 118
Kinghedger 10:07 08:18 82 68
HoneyBadger 10:58 13:20 121 101
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:58 14:30 132 110
miked1961 11:01 11:18 102 85
keriothe_ keriothe 11:05 15:47 142 119
KenD51 11:11 05:26 48 40
AlanS 11:14 11:22 101 84
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 15:52 138 115
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 15:47 137 115
Morphosis 11:28 16:23 142 119
fshephe 11:37 11:57 102 85
andy 11:50 23:25 197 165
David Crooks dcrooks 11:54 14:38 122 102
fuzz 12:03 10:17 85 71
Golvellius 12:14 15:36 127 106
aphasic 12:28 17:18 138 115
JimboFS 12:48 21:15 166 139
tilbee 12:51 12:13 95 79
Silva 12:58 19:56 153 128
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 13:56 104 87
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 17:24 127 106
Ben Staveley 13:42 16:57 123 103
njnclarke 13:54 21:53 157 131
Semillon 14:02 21:31 153 128
howardwilde1 14:06 17:51 126 105
Tibthorpe 14:08 17:31 123 103
fishernick79 14:08 19:02 134 112
Pootle Pootle 14:18 12:45 89 74
franceslc11 14:29 21:49 150 126
cdb_100 14:38 14:45 100 84
Finzi 14:39 17:42 120 100
CentralLine CentralLine 14:46 16:39 112 94
BlackburnRover 14:47 18:08 122 102
phthisis 14:56 24:08 161 135
johninterred Johninterred 15:05 18:29 122 102
JezWoolfrey 15:12 18:18 120 100
andrewlake 15:27 17:04 110 92
tapbarker 15:27 23:23 151 126
Looch 15:33 14:56 96 80
RobR RobR 15:35 17:36 112 94
Squallaby 15:58 21:56 137 115
Amoeba 16:13 14:51 91 76
ilan 16:32 17:10 103 86
ajcauk1 16:48 20:44 123 103
Encota 17:00 19:32 114 95
Crossiant 17:01 26:50 157 131
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:14 32:21 187 157
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 19:22 112 94
Craven 17:23 23:37 135 113
PGooden 17:29 20:29 117 98
Obrador 17:49 19:28 109 91
pterodactyl 18:00 26:04 144 121
hopkinb hopkinb 18:13 20:17 111 93
Mike C 18:38 21:40 116 97
pc8 18:47 19:25 103 86
Solver52 18:52 22:46 120 100
Gallion Fish 18:55 23:24 123 103
julian_w 19:01 24:42 129 108
Zander 19:09 14:58 78 65
McBeakLives 19:12 26:29 137 115
rrricharrrd 19:14 19:54 103 86
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:23 25:54 133 111
James P Special_bitter 19:30 17:33 90 75
Curarist Curarist 19:49 30:59 156 131
Hamish.S 19:50 18:33 93 78
gsriordan52 19:57 35:27 177 148
daniel.faith 20:00 19:57 99 83
squark 20:03 26:06 130 109
uvofiz 20:37 23:02 111 93
Corymbia Corymbia 20:41 18:12 87 73
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 39:56 190 159
crosswordian 21:58 24:49 112 94
stainl665 22:13 24:48 111 93
richardCV22 22:30 32:06 142 119
Brenk Brenk1 22:48 24:08 105 88
goblin 22:51 31:47 139 116
1234 23:01 25:37 111 93
rt51 23:02 09:45 42 35
medodd 23:10 32:03 138 115
Crippens1 23:23 30:55 132 110
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:39 23:27 99 83
monkfish 24:30 30:32 124 104
chris661554 24:33 29:30 120 100
klamery4 24:44 23:30 95 79
Sheen 24:55 31:01 124 104
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:02 31:08 124 104
Fidelio 25:12 29:51 118 99
Yatton50 25:47 37:47 146 122
SlumdogEngineer 26:18 23:10 88 73
nekabue 27:01 47:11 174 146
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:03 31:28 116 97
ulaca ulaca 27:36 33:40 121 101
Winchelt 29:01 36:03 124 104
hipponym 29:44 31:05 104 87
rosselliot 30:18 45:10 149 125
Jeeves 30:24 35:14 115 96
BertieVII 31:12 30:21 97 81
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:20 69:00 220 184
koro kororareka 32:40 42:09 129 108
Rookie 32:42 37:38 115 96
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:10 56:39 170 142
FelicityTT 33:26 29:35 88 73
Maggot 33:42 37:26 111 93
Lloyd 34:27 32:02 92 77
starstruck starstruck_au 34:52 26:13 75 63
j.stanton734 34:52 41:40 119 100
boltonwanderer 35:26 41:00 115 96
kapietro kapietro 36:12 53:56 148 124
Shushannah 36:41 35:03 95 79
HanS 37:58 28:41 75 63
piltdown man 39:36 42:17 106 89
empty 45:05 38:44 85 71
Steve Wood 48:23 48:29 100 84

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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