Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28984

Date 01 August 2024
Number 28984
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 76
Count of ref solvers 73
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28984

* 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
mohn mohn2 04:39 04:30 96 126
Nathan Panning 05:36 04:34 81 106
Diskus 05:42 04:41 82 107
verlaine Verlaine 06:18 05:03 80 105
Jason 06:24 06:41 104 136
lili 06:26 04:07 63 82
Paul Gilbert 07:07 04:43 66 86
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 06:24 86 113
richard 08:38 09:19 107 140
Contrarian3 08:50 06:29 73 96
asaldanha 09:00 05:18 58 76
boulemiche 09:03 10:24 114 150
glheard glh 09:42 11:11 115 151
markdobell 09:45 07:27 76 100
chindit 10:01 09:08 91 119
Kinghedger 10:13 08:22 81 106
lickert 10:30 07:24 70 92
Deane Short Deane Short 10:34 08:10 77 101
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:45 08:19 77 101
AlanS 11:00 10:14 93 122
keriothe_ keriothe 11:06 06:19 56 73
KenD51 11:08 11:32 103 135
HoneyBadger 11:09 06:53 61 80
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:26 09:43 84 110
neilr neilr 11:28 08:32 74 97
fshephe 11:34 09:42 83 109
Morphosis 11:45 09:29 80 105
scrabbler 11:45 10:07 86 113
chriss 11:50 10:19 87 114
chriswords 11:54 11:10 93 122
David Crooks dcrooks 11:54 10:24 87 114
Sheapey Sheapey 12:00 08:44 72 94
toots 12:01 13:07 109 143
tilbee 12:17 08:12 66 86
Golvellius 12:24 13:43 110 144
Dr Dolittle 12:31 24:17 194 255
d.middleton 12:34 13:14 105 138
aphasic 12:42 10:22 81 106
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:46 11:38 91 119
ChuckB 13:00 12:22 95 125
JimboFS 13:08 08:03 61 80
Silva 13:11 08:05 61 80
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:12 11:35 87 114
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 10:12 76 100
Paul Bacon 13:25 12:59 96 126
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:38 09:37 70 92
Groucho 13:40 09:31 69 90
LouWeed LouWeed 13:50 15:46 113 148
fishernick79 14:00 14:12 101 132
njnclarke 14:11 10:02 70 92
Tibthorpe 14:13 12:06 85 111
Semillon 14:15 10:26 73 96
Pootle Pootle 14:18 09:17 64 84
alexh 14:27 13:03 90 118
Peponi13 14:31 09:15 63 82
Secondbass 14:32 07:52 54 71
myles 14:36 12:14 83 109
cdb_100 14:56 14:22 96 126
phthisis 14:57 09:11 61 80
zinzan 15:01 09:52 65 85
CentralLine CentralLine 15:04 10:49 71 93
grape 15:04 14:28 96 126
BlackburnRover 15:06 11:55 78 102
RobR RobR 15:16 11:43 76 100
Looch 15:31 12:23 79 103
andrewlake 15:35 13:54 89 117
Squallaby 15:40 11:30 73 96
JezWoolfrey 15:43 10:55 69 90
LJCN 15:51 12:02 75 98
Achernar 15:51 13:39 86 113
robinh 15:56 12:42 79 103
MK76 16:04 11:56 74 97
Jeremy S 16:12 11:47 72 94
Amoeba 16:13 09:44 60 78
ilan 16:36 12:33 75 98
DunPangolin 16:54 15:19 90 118
ajcauk1 17:05 13:39 79 103
Stavros Stavrolex 17:06 09:17 54 71
Colin2355 17:07 14:03 82 107
cmcnsmith 17:07 20:04 117 153
Encota 17:21 14:08 81 106
Craven 17:32 14:56 85 111
GMcD 17:36 11:26 64 84
PGooden 17:38 12:11 69 90
pterodactyl 18:00 16:45 93 122
Riche Riche 18:11 15:14 83 109
Philip_ 18:14 17:09 94 123
DanSolo 18:20 10:43 58 76
John Arnold 18:20 21:55 119 156
LuckOfLucien 18:21 13:24 73 96
TB22 18:37 15:41 84 110
pc8 18:44 11:03 58 76
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:44 14:16 76 100
SBQuick 18:46 15:17 81 106
KET 19:02 15:01 78 102
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:03 16:21 85 111
Curarist Curarist 19:06 14:11 74 97
rrricharrrd 19:10 16:22 85 111
julian_w 19:15 14:03 72 94
James P Special_bitter 19:20 16:23 84 110
Hamish.S 19:28 11:15 57 75
Jeremy Kenyon 19:31 15:46 80 105
daniel.faith 19:35 11:15 57 75
Mike C 19:36 15:30 79 103
McBeakLives 19:44 13:34 68 89
UisceTe 19:59 17:24 87 114
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:24 13:00 63 82
squark 20:34 18:11 88 115
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:56 17:25 83 109
david_ch 20:56 16:40 79 103
Nangle 21:01 12:54 61 80
Corymbia Corymbia 21:08 17:31 82 107
george.garlick 21:20 15:26 72 94
Rod B 22:12 23:55 107 140
Tudds 22:30 19:47 87 114
stainl665 22:38 17:14 76 100
Jagsfan1971 23:05 19:55 86 113
goblin 23:10 19:07 82 107
Sheen 23:15 15:15 65 85
medodd 23:35 23:31 99 130
Crippens1 23:50 23:44 99 130
Brenk Brenk1 24:23 23:12 95 125
klamery4 24:38 22:11 90 118
Dr_Bob 25:09 22:48 90 118
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:23 22:04 86 113
chris661554 25:26 19:42 77 101
Rowlie26 26:22 20:03 76 100
JayEm 26:42 29:47 111 146
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:52 24:00 89 117
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:14 18:21 67 88
barracuda barracuda 27:14 22:20 82 107
ulaca ulaca 28:16 18:31 65 85
nekabue 28:34 22:35 79 103
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:50 28:14 97 127
symbenall2 28:53 31:09 107 140
Winchelt 29:13 26:48 91 119
pvoller 29:20 25:07 85 111
Cryptique 30:12 08:54 29 38
BertieVII 30:17 29:03 95 125
Grumpole Grumpole 30:30 17:32 57 75
gbestanley 30:35 20:29 66 86
Manveru 30:39 15:04 49 64
RogerC 30:54 21:53 70 92
rosselliot 31:25 20:16 64 84
simjt simjt 33:12 29:14 88 115
koro kororareka 33:40 25:11 74 97
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:44 22:43 67 88
Birdingbob 33:51 18:26 54 71
boltonwanderer 34:58 28:00 80 105
starstruck starstruck_au 35:09 26:56 76 100
kapietro kapietro 35:55 32:51 91 119
joss henry 36:22 65:52 181 238
Dalai Farmer 38:08 25:15 66 86
E Bradford 38:20 24:25 63 82
HanS 38:46 35:43 92 121
rv_1 39:14 28:54 73 96
CoxBurglar coxburglar 39:41 26:17 66 86
jackk.larg 39:50 18:24 46 60
piltdown man 40:07 38:29 95 125
Word Psmith wordpsmith 41:07 21:34 52 68
empty 44:26 36:20 81 106
baronrob 45:26 20:18 44 57
Steve Wood 47:51 43:55 91 119
MartinP MartinP1 48:37 46:35 95 125
intentional rounding 49:57 50:49 101 132

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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