Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28990

Date 08 August 2024
Number 28990
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 94
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 24
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28990

* 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 04:33 97 103
Nathan Panning 05:36 05:46 102 108
Diskus 05:42 05:02 88 93
verlaine Verlaine 06:18 05:22 85 90
Jason 06:24 07:00 109 115
lili 06:26 04:45 73 77
Magoo 06:29 04:52 75 79
Paul Gilbert 07:07 06:05 85 90
cmjhutton 07:21 04:53 66 70
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 07:38 103 109
Contrarian3 08:50 11:56 135 143
asaldanha 09:00 08:09 90 95
samgdavies 09:09 10:05 110 117
glheard glh 09:42 09:11 94 100
markdobell 09:45 09:14 94 100
tiggis 09:56 10:19 103 109
chindit 10:01 10:13 101 107
Kinghedger 10:13 08:53 86 91
lickert 10:30 13:06 124 131
Deane Short Deane Short 10:34 12:12 115 122
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:45 09:41 90 95
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:57 11:36 105 111
AlanS 11:00 08:10 74 78
keriothe_ keriothe 11:06 14:46 133 141
christopherclark4945 11:06 10:57 98 104
miked1961 11:13 09:46 87 92
Jim Willis 11:20 11:14 99 105
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:26 13:21 116 123
SimonAnthony 11:33 10:39 92 97
fshephe 11:34 10:01 86 91
Morphosis 11:45 13:51 117 124
chriswords 11:54 10:32 88 93
Sheapey Sheapey 12:00 09:05 75 79
toots 12:01 11:27 95 101
Golvellius 12:24 13:54 112 119
March (JeffCollins) mch1 12:46 13:35 106 112
edwards.robert1 12:46 11:30 90 95
canismiser 12:50 03:52 30 31
JimboFS 13:08 13:37 103 109
Silva 13:11 10:46 81 86
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:12 11:40 88 93
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 12:38 95 101
Paul Bacon 13:25 15:01 111 118
Groucho 13:40 10:49 79 84
Ben Staveley 13:47 12:16 88 93
LouWeed LouWeed 13:50 09:39 69 73
fishernick79 14:00 19:28 139 147
Crucifer Crucifer 14:06 15:57 113 120
njnclarke 14:11 17:20 122 129
Tibthorpe 14:13 11:38 81 86
Semillon 14:15 15:12 106 112
Pootle Pootle 14:18 11:09 77 81
Freemers 14:25 13:28 93 98
alexh 14:27 16:09 111 118
john.brassey 14:31 13:49 95 101
Finzi 14:49 13:42 92 97
cdb_100 14:56 14:52 99 105
phthisis 14:57 16:02 107 113
CentralLine CentralLine 15:04 13:27 89 94
grape 15:04 16:07 106 112
BlackburnRover 15:06 15:05 99 105
Looch 15:31 11:54 76 80
andrewlake 15:35 18:17 117 124
Squallaby 15:40 19:25 123 130
tapbarker 15:49 13:14 83 88
Achernar 15:51 18:58 119 126
robinh 15:56 19:09 120 127
MK76 16:04 16:38 103 109
DunPangolin 16:54 14:12 84 89
jaraab 17:04 19:33 114 121
ajcauk1 17:05 15:57 93 98
Craven 17:32 17:44 101 107
Crossiant 17:34 13:56 79 84
GMcD 17:36 13:21 75 79
Foozler 17:37 19:13 109 115
PGooden 17:38 19:14 109 115
Obrador 17:47 14:13 79 84
FraserH 17:55 22:34 125 132
Riche Riche 18:11 14:49 81 86
DanSolo 18:20 18:03 98 104
Grestyman Grestyman 18:35 11:46 63 67
pc8 18:44 14:02 74 78
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:44 23:08 123 130
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:03 17:28 91 96
valerian1967 19:09 22:40 118 125
julian_w 19:15 18:07 94 100
Hamish.S 19:28 28:25 145 154
endafk 19:41 18:00 91 96
McBeakLives 19:44 19:55 100 106
dec 19:55 18:13 91 96
gsriordan52 20:10 35:44 177 188
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:24 18:40 91 96
david_ch 20:56 21:40 103 109
Waterloo 21:19 19:47 92 97
David Bourne 21:30 18:26 85 90
crosswordian 21:48 16:21 75 79
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 22:14 22:30 101 107
richardCV22 22:31 23:59 106 112
monkfish 22:34 18:11 80 85
stainl665 22:38 27:31 121 128
Edprof 22:55 20:59 91 96
goblin 23:10 20:01 86 91
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 23:30 22:53 97 103
medodd 23:35 21:31 91 96
1234 23:38 34:31 146 155
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:21 23:55 98 104
JE59 24:22 29:39 121 128
Brenk Brenk1 24:23 17:20 71 75
janesa 24:42 19:12 77 81
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:48 19:24 78 82
Fidelio 25:18 25:05 99 105
chris661554 25:26 20:53 82 87
crucihacker Crucihacker 26:05 32:03 122 129
Yatton50 26:07 29:36 113 120
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:14 28:38 105 111
ulaca ulaca 28:16 22:43 80 85
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:50 31:08 107 113
Winchelt 29:13 29:59 102 108
Cryptique 30:12 37:59 125 132
gbestanley 30:35 26:44 87 92
Manveru 30:39 25:45 84 89
vinyl12345 vinyl1 32:08 27:00 84 89
bruce.johnston22 32:42 34:16 104 110
simjt simjt 33:12 36:25 109 115
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:44 22:23 66 70
Maggot 34:02 33:11 97 103
alistair.boere 34:19 26:29 77 81
Rookie 34:20 21:32 62 65
boltonwanderer 34:58 34:00 97 103
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:10 25:11 71 75
j.stanton734 35:20 30:36 86 91
kapietro kapietro 35:55 34:23 95 101
hydrochoos hydrochoos 38:16 36:00 94 100
HanS 38:46 59:41 153 162
maryht 39:05 40:47 104 110
rv_1 39:14 28:01 71 75
CoxBurglar coxburglar 39:41 28:59 73 77
clivejharlow 43:46 40:52 93 98
MartinP MartinP1 48:37 37:35 77 81
The Real Steve Snackman 49:39 38:43 77 81
intentional rounding 49:57 29:59 60 63
profsjpayne 52:05 40:25 77 81
paulmcl paulmcl 59:25 78:35 132 140

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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