Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29018

Date 10 September 2024
Number 29018
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 102
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29018

* 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 05:40 118 115
Nathan Panning 05:40 05:04 89 87
Diskus 05:43 06:49 119 116
Jason 06:23 06:25 100 98
lili 06:24 06:29 101 99
verlaine Verlaine 06:30 05:40 87 85
mistigris 06:59 06:17 89 87
Paul Gilbert 07:02 07:06 100 98
aphis99 aphis99 07:29 08:29 113 110
samgdavies 08:57 11:35 129 126
asaldanha 09:03 06:54 76 74
markdobell 09:34 13:31 141 138
Umpire 09:55 11:00 110 107
glheard glh 10:00 14:00 140 137
Kinghedger 10:12 16:56 166 162
chindit 10:14 08:00 78 76
Deane Short Deane Short 10:37 08:27 79 77
AlanS 10:41 09:12 86 84
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:42 12:13 114 111
KenD51 10:42 04:35 42 41
lickert 10:44 11:23 106 103
HoneyBadger 10:49 10:20 95 93
keriothe_ keriothe 11:22 09:10 80 78
miked1961 11:29 09:54 86 84
fshephe 11:34 13:44 118 115
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:40 11:49 101 99
David Crooks dcrooks 11:41 13:42 117 114
Sheapey Sheapey 12:00 12:34 104 101
chriswords 12:04 11:25 94 92
andy 12:05 10:36 87 85
edwards.robert1 12:08 10:16 84 82
fuzz 12:08 10:07 83 81
canismiser 12:15 18:36 151 148
tilbee 12:20 14:46 119 116
d.middleton 12:35 16:00 127 124
robertL 12:46 15:54 124 121
Golvellius 12:47 15:33 121 118
ChuckB 12:52 13:16 103 100
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:58 17:48 137 134
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:00 16:57 130 127
Silva 13:08 13:17 101 99
JimboFS 13:18 12:46 95 93
LouWeed LouWeed 13:38 13:01 95 93
njnclarke 13:42 17:07 124 121
Freemers 13:59 13:56 99 97
Groucho 13:59 25:09 179 175
Pootle Pootle 14:05 13:31 95 93
Crucifer Crucifer 14:17 19:07 133 130
Semillon 14:17 14:01 98 96
Peponi13 14:17 18:45 131 128
Tibthorpe 14:20 19:52 138 135
franceslc11 14:20 12:33 87 85
Ben Staveley 14:21 15:11 105 102
Secondbass 14:24 23:20 162 158
CentralLine CentralLine 14:53 15:14 102 100
johninterred Johninterred 15:11 15:33 102 100
andrewlake 15:35 18:55 121 118
Looch 15:38 17:51 114 111
MK76 15:46 22:42 143 140
tapbarker 15:48 22:53 144 141
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 15:56 14:08 88 86
LJCN 15:56 17:55 112 109
chriswestontour 16:00 22:03 137 134
AndyR 16:08 17:14 106 103
robinh 16:23 18:52 115 112
Jeremy S 16:33 17:39 106 103
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:41 37:31 224 219
cmcnsmith 16:55 19:22 114 111
Encota 16:57 19:22 114 111
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 10:27 60 58
GMcD 17:17 18:34 107 104
Craven 17:34 20:38 117 114
Riche Riche 17:35 17:18 98 96
Dr Dolittle 17:47 31:53 179 175
rrricharrrd 18:19 28:44 156 152
SeamusX 18:35 16:03 86 84
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:39 20:30 109 106
hopkinb hopkinb 18:43 19:54 106 103
McBeakLives 18:44 20:00 106 103
Jeremy Kenyon 18:51 18:00 95 93
julian_w 18:53 15:09 80 78
Curarist Curarist 18:54 19:11 101 99
Zabadak3 Zabadak 18:58 21:29 113 110
endafk 19:00 20:43 109 106
John Arnold 19:03 24:17 127 124
valerian1967 19:07 17:25 91 89
TB22 19:13 13:54 72 70
pc8 19:24 16:47 86 84
Solver52 19:25 20:47 107 104
James P Special_bitter 19:37 24:50 126 123
Zander 19:40 15:01 76 74
uvofiz 19:54 26:15 131 128
daniel.faith 20:03 17:49 88 86
Hamish.S 20:07 19:28 96 94
UisceTe 20:30 32:56 160 156
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:43 21:53 105 102
Nangle 20:51 28:29 136 133
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:59 36:40 174 170
david_ch 21:10 24:00 113 110
Corymbia Corymbia 21:37 31:11 144 141
Rod B 21:52 15:33 71 69
Leegoods 22:05 17:44 80 78
Tudds 22:23 33:51 151 148
The Caffeine Kid 22:46 28:17 124 121
richardCV22 22:46 23:15 102 100
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 22:51 27:26 120 117
Jagsfan1971 23:05 30:49 133 130
goblin 23:08 21:45 94 92
6098mr 23:30 22:06 94 92
medodd 23:35 36:26 154 150
1234 23:59 20:05 83 81
Crippens1 24:24 33:50 138 135
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:41 26:50 108 105
Fidelio 24:58 09:53 39 38
Rowlie26 25:30 34:52 136 133
NAPASAI napasai 25:57 38:22 147 144
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:20 28:34 108 105
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:05 23:20 86 84
ulaca ulaca 27:14 39:39 145 142
Mudge Mudge 27:43 24:55 89 87
nekabue 29:18 32:58 112 109
Winchelt 29:24 44:25 151 148
Grumpole Grumpole 29:57 27:26 91 89
Manveru 30:56 42:31 137 134
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:07 47:00 151 148
RogerC 31:32 40:40 128 125
alistair.boere 33:18 20:12 60 58
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:41 36:13 107 104
koro kororareka 34:04 37:36 110 107
bruce.johnston22 34:09 31:21 91 89
Birdingbob 34:33 31:19 90 88
boltonwanderer 35:21 51:00 144 141
Shushannah 36:31 44:06 120 117
E Bradford 37:56 58:28 154 150
rv_1 38:45 27:10 70 68
jackk.larg 39:56 31:23 78 76
maryht 40:50 43:06 105 102
MartinP MartinP1 47:55 76:50 160 156
Steve Wood 48:12 51:53 107 104
The Real Steve Snackman 49:33 42:15 85 83
kjbr 50:21 68:27 135 132
profsjpayne 54:56 98:38 179 175
paulmcl paulmcl 57:47 58:03 100 98

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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