Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28973

Date 19 July 2024
Number 28973
Day of week Friday
NITCH 95
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28973

* 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 03:50 87 91
mohn mohn2 04:34 05:11 113 118
Nathan Panning 05:42 05:28 95 100
Diskus 05:47 05:56 102 107
Jason 06:15 06:57 111 116
lili 06:26 05:18 82 86
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 06:12 95 100
Paul Gilbert 07:06 08:07 114 120
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 07:15 98 103
cmjhutton 07:38 13:41 179 188
asaldanha 08:59 10:58 122 128
Contrarian3 09:06 08:00 87 91
samgdavies 09:14 07:18 79 83
glheard glh 09:26 09:41 102 107
markdobell 09:36 08:33 89 93
chindit 09:48 10:07 103 108
Umpire 09:56 06:48 68 71
Deane Short Deane Short 10:30 12:31 119 125
lickert 10:32 15:03 142 149
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 10:41 100 105
HoneyBadger 10:58 15:24 140 147
miked1961 11:01 11:55 108 113
keriothe_ keriothe 11:05 07:17 65 68
KenD51 11:11 04:55 43 45
AlanS 11:14 11:21 101 106
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 11:39 101 106
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 11:11 97 102
Morphosis 11:28 16:55 147 154
fshephe 11:37 13:54 119 125
neilr neilr 11:37 11:22 97 102
scrabbler 11:48 15:44 133 140
chriswords 11:53 11:09 93 97
David Crooks dcrooks 11:54 11:20 95 100
fuzz 12:03 15:03 124 130
Golvellius 12:14 09:30 77 81
aphasic 12:28 13:30 108 113
ChuckB 12:38 21:34 170 178
canismiser 12:39 13:12 104 109
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:42 17:07 134 141
JimboFS 12:48 18:47 146 153
edwards.robert1 12:52 11:32 89 93
Silva 12:58 17:51 137 144
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:16 15:37 117 123
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 08:36 64 67
michaelbell53 13:20 14:10 106 111
Groucho 13:35 16:34 121 127
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 13:40 100 105
Ben Staveley 13:42 11:13 81 85
Semillon 14:02 13:46 98 103
Tibthorpe 14:08 11:20 80 84
alexh 14:13 16:00 112 117
Pootle Pootle 14:18 13:47 96 101
Crucifer Crucifer 14:27 16:30 114 120
franceslc11 14:29 12:19 85 89
Freemers 14:32 11:16 77 81
Finzi 14:39 16:21 111 116
CentralLine CentralLine 14:46 20:33 139 146
phthisis 14:56 16:03 107 112
johninterred Johninterred 15:05 11:02 73 76
JezWoolfrey 15:12 24:52 163 171
AndyR 15:17 16:50 110 115
tapbarker 15:27 16:11 104 109
andrewlake 15:27 14:14 92 96
Looch 15:33 16:06 103 108
GeorgeTz 15:34 17:52 114 120
RobR RobR 15:35 14:32 93 97
LJCN 15:40 11:42 74 77
robinh 15:43 18:10 115 121
Achernar 15:56 18:33 116 122
Squallaby 15:58 16:19 102 107
MK76 16:19 18:10 111 116
ilan 16:32 17:51 107 112
ajcauk1 16:48 22:42 135 142
DunPangolin 16:51 17:30 103 108
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:14 14:37 84 88
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 11:15 65 68
Jeremy S 17:20 14:07 81 85
Colin2355 17:22 17:08 98 103
Craven 17:23 20:32 118 124
PGooden 17:29 16:02 91 95
pterodactyl 18:00 16:24 91 95
MossDef 18:11 15:19 84 88
hopkinb hopkinb 18:13 23:11 127 133
tds 18:19 12:14 66 69
KET 18:21 16:52 91 95
Riche Riche 18:40 17:28 93 97
Dvynys dvynys 18:44 24:19 129 135
pc8 18:47 16:25 87 91
Solver52 18:52 21:12 112 117
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:58 23:29 123 129
SeamusX 19:08 12:52 67 70
Zander 19:09 15:04 78 82
McBeakLives 19:12 19:20 100 105
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:23 17:55 92 96
James P Special_bitter 19:30 15:10 77 81
Curarist Curarist 19:49 16:28 83 87
Hamish.S 19:50 24:55 125 131
gsriordan52 19:57 25:51 129 135
daniel.faith 20:00 15:17 76 80
endafk 20:02 16:24 81 85
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 20:12 11:58 59 62
valerian1967 20:19 16:51 82 86
doublecross anguswalker 20:23 20:10 98 103
DianeRS 20:28 26:19 128 134
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:32 10:45 52 54
Waterloo 20:38 28:01 135 142
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 29:13 139 146
Nangle 21:11 15:04 71 74
David Bourne 21:18 21:31 101 106
crosswordian 21:58 24:14 110 115
david_ch 22:11 16:45 75 78
richardCV22 22:30 22:49 101 106
Brenk Brenk1 22:48 43:35 191 201
goblin 22:51 22:04 96 101
Crippens1 23:23 24:17 103 108
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:39 28:59 122 128
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:52 24:51 104 109
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:06 18:08 75 78
janesa 24:32 15:52 64 67
chris661554 24:33 26:05 106 111
Sheen 24:55 16:49 67 70
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:02 34:25 137 144
Fidelio 25:12 26:07 103 108
tony the butcher montana 25:32 24:48 97 102
6098mr 25:35 22:32 88 92
Gussie 25:58 36:41 141 148
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 25:59 44:00 169 177
nekabue 27:01 42:40 157 165
Rowlie26 27:08 15:04 55 57
barracuda barracuda 27:11 26:53 98 103
ulaca ulaca 27:36 31:03 112 117
Mudge Mudge 28:09 19:00 67 70
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:21 33:46 119 125
JayEm 28:38 20:34 71 74
hipponym 29:44 29:53 100 105
rosselliot 30:18 35:19 116 122
BertieVII 31:12 24:25 78 82
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:20 20:00 63 66
koro kororareka 32:40 35:27 108 113
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:10 54:24 164 172
alistair.boere 33:30 26:39 79 83
simjt simjt 33:52 30:41 90 94
Lloyd 34:27 35:50 104 109
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 34:29 34:13 99 104
Birdingbob 34:32 33:08 95 100
starstruck starstruck_au 34:52 29:36 84 88
boltonwanderer 35:26 44:00 124 130
tyrotim tyrotim 36:14 32:53 90 94
Shushannah 36:41 34:15 93 97
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:48 91:21 241 253
HanS 37:58 39:58 105 110
rv_1 38:05 41:04 107 112
maryht 38:36 42:07 109 114
Dalai Farmer 40:16 29:49 74 77
empty 45:05 29:02 64 67
Steve Wood 48:23 36:13 74 77
MartinP MartinP1 49:30 50:18 101 106
kjbr 51:40 64:26 124 130
The Real Steve Snackman 52:01 42:51 82 86
profsjpayne 52:41 39:59 75 78
intentional rounding 52:53 54:18 102 107

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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