Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29015

Date 06 September 2024
Number 29015
Day of week Friday
NITCH 103
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 42
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29015

* 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 04:46 04:00 83 80
Magoo 06:11 05:55 95 92
Jason 06:23 12:56 202 196
mauefw Mauefw 06:41 07:13 107 103
cmjhutton 07:16 06:11 85 82
aphis99 aphis99 07:29 06:30 86 83
samgdavies 08:57 08:49 98 95
Umpire 09:55 08:51 89 86
chindit 10:14 15:26 150 145
KenD51 10:42 03:35 33 32
HoneyBadger 10:49 11:59 110 106
Heyesey 11:39 12:12 104 100
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:40 14:17 122 118
Morphosis 11:47 11:14 95 92
scrabbler 11:50 11:18 95 92
Sheapey Sheapey 12:00 14:07 117 113
chriswords 12:04 11:09 92 89
edwards.robert1 12:08 11:41 96 93
tilbee 12:20 11:05 89 86
Golvellius 12:47 15:07 118 114
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 12:57 19:06 147 142
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:00 14:19 110 106
JimboFS 13:18 10:21 77 74
LouWeed LouWeed 13:38 16:37 121 117
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:39 13:08 96 93
Freemers 13:59 18:34 132 128
Pootle Pootle 14:05 13:39 96 93
fishernick79 14:13 13:26 94 91
Semillon 14:17 08:49 61 59
Crucifer Crucifer 14:17 14:58 104 100
Tibthorpe 14:20 14:09 98 95
alexh 14:31 13:40 94 91
CentralLine CentralLine 14:53 16:30 110 106
hatterboy 15:05 17:55 118 114
phthisis 15:09 12:20 81 78
Finzi 15:10 14:19 94 91
johninterred Johninterred 15:11 13:20 87 84
BlackburnRover 15:19 17:22 113 109
andrewlake 15:35 15:25 98 95
Looch 15:38 19:19 123 119
MK76 15:46 24:28 155 150
tapbarker 15:48 20:07 127 123
LJCN 15:56 18:52 118 114
Achernar 16:02 22:10 138 133
Mike Mansbridge 16:14 04:13 25 24
robinh 16:23 11:19 69 66
Jeremy S 16:33 20:58 126 122
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:41 15:29 92 89
ilan 16:53 17:38 104 100
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 16:03 92 89
Crossiant 17:20 15:52 91 88
PGooden 17:25 15:18 87 84
rrricharrrd 18:19 23:32 128 124
Dvynys dvynys 18:33 31:27 169 164
hopkinb hopkinb 18:43 20:20 108 104
Jeremy Kenyon 18:51 27:08 143 138
julian_w 18:53 21:22 113 109
Curarist Curarist 18:54 17:34 92 89
endafk 19:00 25:22 133 129
Mike C 19:12 19:00 98 95
pc8 19:24 17:09 88 85
Zander 19:40 18:48 95 92
uvofiz 19:54 16:38 83 80
daniel.faith 20:03 24:31 122 118
Hamish.S 20:07 17:07 85 82
drginacoco 20:47 38:17 184 178
george.garlick 21:36 24:37 113 109
Leegoods 22:05 23:53 108 104
Tudds 22:23 21:39 96 93
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 22:51 30:46 134 130
Jagsfan1971 23:05 23:27 101 98
goblin 23:08 22:12 95 92
gsriordan52 23:13 21:00 90 87
tony the butcher montana 24:02 22:18 92 89
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 26:26 107 103
Dr_Bob 24:57 28:09 112 108
Fidelio 24:58 26:48 107 103
Rowlie26 25:30 22:09 86 83
Yatton50 25:39 20:52 81 78
uffindellbirtjn 25:45 31:09 120 116
NAPASAI napasai 25:57 25:40 98 95
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:20 32:00 121 117
Gussie 26:32 37:01 139 134
JayEm 26:43 25:46 96 93
barracuda barracuda 27:22 33:09 121 117
Mudge Mudge 27:43 18:19 66 64
nekabue 29:18 30:56 105 101
Winchelt 29:24 26:06 88 85
gbestanley 30:07 29:57 99 96
Cryptique 30:40 21:23 69 66
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:07 45:00 144 139
Jeeves 31:08 29:11 93 90
simjt simjt 33:08 28:53 87 84
alistair.boere 33:18 37:28 112 108
Birdingbob 34:33 34:53 100 97
starstruck starstruck_au 34:42 41:34 119 115
boltonwanderer 35:21 27:00 76 73
j.stanton734 35:54 58:16 162 157
Shushannah 36:31 48:06 131 127
CoxBurglar coxburglar 38:42 39:54 103 100
rv_1 38:45 42:35 109 105
jackk.larg 39:56 54:31 136 132
empty 45:32 50:58 111 107
MartinP MartinP1 47:55 81:17 169 164
The Real Steve Snackman 49:33 53:04 107 103

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back