Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28972

Date 18 July 2024
Number 28972
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 93
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 9
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28972

* 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 05:12 119 127
mohn mohn2 04:34 03:17 71 76
Diskus 05:47 05:39 97 104
Jason 06:15 04:16 68 73
lili 06:26 07:05 110 118
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 05:53 90 96
Magoo 06:31 06:28 99 106
mauefw Mauefw 06:47 10:12 150 161
Paul Gilbert 07:06 08:25 118 126
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 06:32 89 95
cmjhutton 07:38 06:34 86 92
asaldanha 08:59 10:58 122 131
glheard glh 09:26 08:36 91 97
chindit 09:48 07:32 76 81
Umpire 09:56 09:43 97 104
Kinghedger 10:07 08:03 79 84
Dr Dolittle 10:20 24:33 237 254
tiggis 10:25 08:16 79 84
Deane Short Deane Short 10:30 07:51 74 79
lickert 10:32 11:25 108 116
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 09:52 92 98
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:58 12:14 111 119
HoneyBadger 10:58 11:43 106 113
miked1961 11:01 08:59 81 87
keriothe_ keriothe 11:05 10:16 92 98
KenD51 11:11 08:05 72 77
AlanS 11:14 09:41 86 92
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 09:35 83 89
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 08:10 71 76
Morphosis 11:28 09:04 79 84
SimonAnthony 11:31 12:15 106 113
fshephe 11:37 13:11 113 121
neilr neilr 11:37 12:47 110 118
chriswords 11:53 12:29 105 112
fuzz 12:03 10:53 90 96
Golvellius 12:14 10:47 88 94
Jim Willis 12:22 10:26 84 90
JimboFS 12:48 15:30 121 130
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 12:50 12:45 99 106
tilbee 12:51 10:40 83 89
edwards.robert1 12:52 11:32 89 95
Silva 12:58 13:49 106 113
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 14:00 105 112
michaelbell53 13:20 14:06 105 112
Groucho 13:35 14:07 103 110
robertL 13:37 10:29 76 81
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 13:03 95 102
Ben Staveley 13:42 10:57 79 84
Semillon 14:02 13:11 93 100
Tibthorpe 14:08 12:13 86 92
alexh 14:13 14:12 99 106
Pootle Pootle 14:18 08:18 58 62
Crucifer Crucifer 14:27 13:13 91 97
Freemers 14:32 14:30 99 106
Finzi 14:39 11:46 80 86
gabrojak 14:46 15:10 102 109
Aloysius 14:46 17:59 121 130
CentralLine CentralLine 14:46 16:51 114 122
BlackburnRover 14:47 17:06 115 123
phthisis 14:56 16:32 110 118
johninterred Johninterred 15:05 12:34 83 89
JezWoolfrey 15:12 16:12 106 113
tapbarker 15:27 15:59 103 110
andrewlake 15:27 21:18 137 147
Looch 15:33 17:44 114 122
RobR RobR 15:35 18:21 117 125
LJCN 15:40 14:32 92 98
robinh 15:43 17:48 113 121
Achernar 15:56 17:44 111 119
Squallaby 15:58 16:00 100 107
Amoeba 16:13 14:19 88 94
ilan 16:32 20:07 121 130
ajcauk1 16:48 18:37 110 118
DunPangolin 16:51 22:22 132 141
TB22 16:57 20:34 121 130
Encota 17:00 16:45 98 105
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:14 22:12 128 137
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 07:02 40 43
Jeremy S 17:20 17:31 101 108
Colin2355 17:22 15:58 91 97
Craven 17:23 19:54 114 122
PGooden 17:29 13:01 74 79
GMcD 17:35 12:12 69 74
pterodactyl 18:00 15:19 85 91
MossDef 18:11 18:13 100 107
hopkinb hopkinb 18:13 17:07 93 100
LuckOfLucien 18:17 15:54 86 92
tds 18:19 18:30 101 108
KET 18:21 16:09 88 94
pc8 18:47 16:12 86 92
Solver52 18:52 19:39 104 111
Gallion Fish 18:55 17:23 91 97
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:58 22:05 116 124
McBeakLives 19:12 19:38 102 109
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:23 23:36 121 130
Jeremy Kenyon 19:47 18:48 95 102
Curarist Curarist 19:49 18:40 94 101
gsriordan52 19:57 17:47 89 95
daniel.faith 20:00 20:34 102 109
endafk 20:02 22:55 114 122
John Arnold 20:09 23:20 115 123
valerian1967 20:19 22:58 113 121
Pxspxs 20:23 18:01 88 94
DianeRS 20:28 15:02 73 78
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:29 18:55 92 98
Waterloo 20:38 18:10 88 94
Corymbia Corymbia 20:41 24:59 120 129
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 44:00 210 225
Jagsfan1971 21:15 28:53 135 145
David Bourne 21:18 20:18 95 102
george.garlick 21:44 24:41 113 121
david_ch 22:11 20:54 94 101
richardCV22 22:30 25:57 115 123
Brenk Brenk1 22:48 20:35 90 96
1234 23:01 17:17 75 80
medodd 23:10 30:44 132 141
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:39 25:52 109 117
Edprof 24:04 21:58 91 97
chris661554 24:33 25:08 102 109
klamery4 24:44 24:01 97 104
Fidelio 25:12 24:30 97 104
Dr_Bob 25:54 24:07 93 100
crucihacker 25:55 23:42 91 97
nekabue 27:01 28:12 104 111
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:03 29:05 107 115
Rowlie26 27:08 28:09 103 110
barracuda barracuda 27:11 18:27 67 72
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:21 20:33 72 77
Winchelt 29:01 30:13 104 111
annikins 29:23 33:52 115 123
hipponym 29:44 22:27 75 80
Manveru 30:39 26:41 87 93
gbestanley 30:58 30:19 97 104
BertieVII 31:12 20:26 65 69
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:20 40:00 127 136
dosbarth 32:28 32:36 100 107
koro kororareka 32:40 33:10 101 108
Rookie 32:42 36:01 110 118
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:10 42:37 128 137
simjt simjt 33:52 44:14 130 139
Lloyd 34:27 34:56 101 108
Birdingbob 34:32 27:49 80 86
starstruck starstruck_au 34:52 24:28 70 75
boltonwanderer 35:26 31:00 87 93
kapietro kapietro 36:12 41:35 114 122
tyrotim tyrotim 36:14 36:07 99 106
Shushannah 36:41 36:51 100 107
HanS 37:58 46:58 123 132
maryht 38:36 54:42 141 151
Word Psmith wordpsmith 40:09 55:10 137 147
Dalai Farmer 40:16 32:43 81 87
clivejharlow 43:26 50:28 116 124
empty 45:05 50:19 111 119
Steve Wood 48:23 41:30 85 91
MartinP MartinP1 49:30 58:46 118 126
The Real Steve Snackman 52:01 59:43 114 122
profsjpayne 52:41 103:22 196 210

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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