Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28976

Date 23 July 2024
Number 28976
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 70
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28976

* 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 03:29 79 112
Nathan Panning 05:42 05:14 91 130
Diskus 05:47 05:13 90 128
Jason 06:15 04:30 72 102
lili 06:26 05:32 86 122
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 06:00 92 131
Magoo 06:31 05:38 86 122
hilarym 07:05 05:30 77 110
aphis99 aphis99 07:20 04:07 56 80
cmjhutton 07:38 03:12 41 58
asaldanha 08:59 08:10 90 128
Contrarian3 09:06 06:23 70 100
samgdavies 09:14 06:14 67 95
glheard glh 09:26 09:17 98 140
markdobell 09:36 08:17 86 122
Umpire 09:56 07:29 75 107
Kinghedger 10:07 07:28 73 104
Dr Dolittle 10:20 14:09 136 194
lickert 10:32 05:03 47 67
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 06:11 57 81
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 10:58 10:30 95 135
miked1961 11:01 08:14 74 105
keriothe_ keriothe 11:05 11:19 102 145
KenD51 11:11 12:33 112 160
AlanS 11:14 07:09 63 90
Sheapey Sheapey 11:27 09:17 81 115
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:28 08:04 70 100
Morphosis 11:28 08:24 73 104
SimonAnthony 11:31 08:05 70 100
fshephe 11:37 07:07 61 87
neilr neilr 11:37 07:56 68 97
scrabbler 11:48 09:35 81 115
andy 11:50 07:23 62 88
chriswords 11:53 08:45 73 104
David Crooks dcrooks 11:54 07:54 66 94
chriss 11:57 07:56 66 94
Golvellius 12:14 10:24 85 121
aphasic 12:28 11:36 93 132
ChuckB 12:38 09:46 77 110
canismiser 12:39 10:33 83 118
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:42 08:06 63 90
John Walsh 12:44 09:53 77 110
JimboFS 12:48 08:28 66 94
tilbee 12:51 10:02 78 111
Silva 12:58 08:39 66 94
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:19 07:27 55 78
michaelbell53 13:20 13:19 99 141
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:29 10:23 77 110
Groucho 13:35 09:15 68 97
robertL 13:37 07:00 51 72
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 08:15 60 85
Semillon 14:02 09:24 66 94
howardwilde1 14:06 11:57 84 120
Secondbass 14:10 08:58 63 90
alexh 14:13 09:14 64 91
Pootle Pootle 14:18 09:02 63 90
Freemers 14:32 11:53 81 115
cdb_100 14:38 13:39 93 132
Finzi 14:39 11:47 80 114
CentralLine CentralLine 14:46 09:58 67 95
gabrojak 14:46 12:10 82 117
BlackburnRover 14:47 14:05 95 135
john.brassey 15:07 13:05 86 122
grape 15:07 12:19 81 115
andrewlake 15:27 14:35 94 134
Looch 15:33 10:26 67 95
RobR RobR 15:35 08:26 54 77
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:37 07:00 44 62
zinzan 15:37 13:00 83 118
LJCN 15:40 13:06 83 118
robinh 15:43 11:57 76 108
Achernar 15:56 17:52 112 160
Amoeba89 Amoeba 16:13 09:48 60 85
MK76 16:19 08:43 53 75
ilan 16:32 16:45 101 144
ajcauk1 16:48 14:29 86 122
DunPangolin 16:51 11:27 67 95
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 17:14 09:53 57 81
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 07:53 45 64
Jeremy S 17:20 14:59 86 122
Colin2355 17:22 12:56 74 105
Craven 17:23 14:11 81 115
PGooden 17:29 11:03 63 90
GMcD 17:35 08:23 47 67
Obrador 17:49 10:28 58 82
pterodactyl 18:00 13:49 76 108
DanSolo 18:15 10:15 56 80
tds 18:19 16:24 89 127
chriswestontour 18:31 10:58 59 84
Riche Riche 18:40 12:31 67 95
pc8 18:47 17:15 91 130
martinede 18:48 13:18 70 100
Gallion Fish 18:55 17:28 92 131
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:58 13:46 72 102
SeamusX 19:08 09:45 50 71
Zander 19:09 12:54 67 95
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:23 10:50 55 78
James P Special_bitter 19:30 14:08 72 102
Curarist Curarist 19:49 20:38 104 148
Hamish.S 19:50 12:29 62 88
gsriordan52 19:57 14:44 73 104
daniel.faith 20:00 14:36 73 104
endafk 20:02 14:29 72 102
John Arnold 20:09 14:30 71 101
valerian1967 20:19 15:23 75 107
kath 20:27 16:18 79 112
DianeRS 20:28 12:11 59 84
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:29 14:08 68 97
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:32 15:58 77 110
Waterloo 20:38 16:23 79 112
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 17:11 82 117
Nangle 21:11 16:50 79 112
george.garlick 21:44 14:38 67 95
david_ch 22:11 12:20 55 78
luxtonj61 22:36 11:41 51 72
Tudds 22:39 11:31 50 71
Brenk Brenk1 22:48 12:17 53 75
goblin 22:51 17:50 78 111
rjcassidy rjcassidy 23:39 13:10 55 78
monkfish 24:30 07:37 31 44
janesa 24:32 15:06 61 87
chris661554 24:33 15:09 61 87
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:02 14:59 59 84
6098mr 25:35 23:24 91 130
Yatton50 25:47 25:11 97 138
crucihacker Crucihacker 25:55 11:56 46 65
Gussie 25:58 13:05 50 71
nekabue 27:01 18:47 69 98
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:03 11:21 41 58
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 27:08 30:11 111 158
barracuda barracuda 27:11 15:00 55 78
pvoller 28:02 25:51 92 131
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:21 15:49 55 78
Winchelt 29:01 32:17 111 158
symbenall2 29:09 17:20 59 84
RogerC 30:10 22:24 74 105
rosselliot 30:18 26:41 88 125
Manveru 30:39 17:38 57 81
gbestanley 30:58 21:50 70 100
BertieVII 31:12 19:14 61 87
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:20 14:00 44 62
koro kororareka 32:40 17:40 54 77
Rookie 32:42 29:49 91 130
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:10 15:53 47 67
alistair.boere 33:30 24:17 72 102
simjt simjt 33:52 15:43 46 65
Lloyd 34:27 14:07 40 57
Birdingbob 34:32 17:09 49 70
starstruck starstruck_au 34:52 18:33 53 75
j.stanton734 34:52 16:53 48 68
boltonwanderer 35:26 19:00 53 75
Cryptique 36:02 29:20 81 115
kapietro kapietro 36:12 20:14 55 78
joss henry 36:28 11:54 32 45
Shushannah 36:41 32:25 88 125
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:48 30:46 81 115
HanS 37:58 47:52 126 180
rv_1 38:05 33:57 89 127
maryht 38:36 36:24 94 134
Word Psmith wordpsmith 40:09 28:53 71 101
clivejharlow 43:26 32:46 75 107
Steve Wood 48:23 44:34 92 131
MartinP MartinP1 49:30 27:57 56 80
kjbr 51:40 28:40 55 78
The Real Steve Snackman 52:01 23:49 45 64
profsjpayne 52:41 15:30 29 41
intentional rounding 52:53 40:13 76 108
paulmcl paulmcl 59:15 33:23 56 80

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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