Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29029

Date 23 September 2024
Number 29029
Day of week Monday
NITCH 74
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29029

* 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 03:30 73 98
Diskus 05:43 04:38 81 109
Magoo 06:11 04:55 79 106
Jason 06:23 04:35 71 95
verlaine Verlaine 06:30 05:18 81 109
cmjhutton 07:16 04:56 67 90
hilarym 07:24 04:22 59 79
aphis99 aphis99 07:29 05:15 70 94
samgdavies 08:57 08:17 92 124
asaldanha 09:03 07:02 77 104
markdobell 09:34 08:14 86 116
Umpire 09:55 08:01 80 108
Kinghedger 10:12 07:00 68 91
Deane Short Deane Short 10:37 10:00 94 127
AlanS 10:41 07:30 70 94
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:42 08:15 77 104
KenD51 10:42 14:04 131 177
lickert 10:44 07:12 67 90
HoneyBadger 10:49 06:59 64 86
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:09 09:04 81 109
keriothe_ keriothe 11:22 06:54 60 81
miked1961 11:29 09:57 86 116
fshephe 11:34 09:31 82 110
SimonAnthony 11:35 11:50 102 137
neilr neilr 11:38 06:52 59 79
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:40 11:03 94 127
David Crooks dcrooks 11:41 10:03 86 116
Morphosis 11:47 14:12 120 162
toots 11:50 06:54 58 78
Sheapey Sheapey 12:00 07:12 60 81
chriswords 12:04 09:39 79 106
andy 12:05 10:06 83 112
edwards.robert1 12:08 11:13 92 124
robertL 12:46 15:14 119 160
aphasic 12:46 08:34 67 90
Golvellius 12:47 10:41 83 112
ChuckB 12:52 09:04 70 94
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:58 13:52 106 143
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:00 11:21 87 117
Silva 13:08 11:23 86 116
michaelbell53 13:16 11:03 83 112
JimboFS 13:18 13:17 99 133
LouWeed LouWeed 13:38 11:39 85 114
njnclarke 13:42 08:06 59 79
Groucho 13:59 07:48 55 74
Freemers 13:59 13:06 93 125
howardwilde1 14:00 09:31 67 90
fishernick79 14:13 12:32 88 118
Crucifer Crucifer 14:17 09:27 66 89
Semillon 14:17 13:55 97 131
Tibthorpe 14:20 07:07 49 66
alexh 14:31 11:47 81 109
cdb_100 14:38 11:37 79 106
GeorgeTz 14:45 14:37 99 133
CentralLine CentralLine 14:53 13:53 93 125
johninterred Johninterred 15:11 09:40 63 85
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:25 09:28 61 82
andrewlake 15:35 11:04 71 95
Looch 15:38 12:48 81 109
daulbs 15:41 13:59 89 120
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 15:56 16:30 103 139
LJCN 15:56 14:41 92 124
chriswestontour 16:00 19:03 119 160
Achernar 16:02 16:02 100 135
Jeremy S 16:33 13:50 83 112
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:41 18:10 108 145
ilan 16:53 15:19 90 121
cmcnsmith 16:55 15:49 93 125
ajcauk1 16:59 12:38 74 100
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 07:31 43 58
Crossiant 17:20 12:04 69 93
Colin2355 17:31 14:18 81 109
Riche Riche 17:35 16:07 91 122
Grestyman Grestyman 17:44 09:49 55 74
Dr Dolittle 17:47 18:26 103 139
pterodactyl 17:59 11:36 64 86
FraserH 18:10 15:06 83 112
Foozler 18:15 14:53 81 109
rrricharrrd 18:19 23:37 128 172
SeamusX 18:35 14:22 77 104
hopkinb hopkinb 18:43 12:33 67 90
Jeremy Kenyon 18:51 16:45 88 118
julian_w 18:53 10:48 57 77
martinede 18:54 15:29 81 109
Curarist Curarist 18:54 19:42 104 140
Zabadak3 Zabadak 18:58 15:37 82 110
endafk 19:00 14:52 78 105
SBQuick 19:02 13:47 72 97
valerian1967 19:07 12:30 65 87
Mike C 19:12 11:43 61 82
TB22 19:13 06:26 33 44
pc8 19:24 14:40 75 101
Solver52 19:25 13:45 70 94
James P Special_bitter 19:37 17:35 89 120
daniel.faith 20:03 18:45 93 125
Hamish.S 20:07 16:52 83 112
dec 20:09 18:04 89 120
DamienKnapma 20:22 21:04 103 139
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:43 13:46 66 89
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:59 11:42 55 74
Waterloo 21:13 11:26 53 71
David Bourne 21:16 11:55 56 75
george.garlick 21:36 18:13 84 113
Corymbia Corymbia 21:37 17:45 82 110
Leegoods 22:05 16:22 74 100
stainl665 22:59 20:09 87 117
Jagsfan1971 23:05 16:01 69 93
goblin 23:08 19:27 84 113
gsriordan52 23:13 16:10 69 93
janesa 23:27 20:25 87 117
medodd 23:35 24:34 104 140
Crippens1 24:24 16:56 69 93
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:41 15:14 61 82
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 19:42 79 106
Rowlie26 25:30 21:23 83 112
chris661554 25:31 16:03 62 83
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:34 21:08 82 110
Brenk Brenk1 25:49 12:05 46 62
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:20 15:33 59 79
JayEm 26:43 10:30 39 52
Deezzaa Deezzaa 27:05 18:11 67 90
ulaca ulaca 27:14 18:40 68 91
barracuda barracuda 27:22 15:40 57 77
Bert Dove 27:37 19:00 68 91
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:15 18:31 63 85
nekabue 29:18 28:17 96 129
Winchelt 29:24 25:58 88 118
Grumpole Grumpole 29:57 16:09 53 71
BertieVII 30:16 22:03 72 97
Cryptique 30:40 35:41 116 156
rosselliot 31:22 20:58 66 89
alistair.boere 33:18 33:56 101 136
Lloyd 33:33 25:15 75 101
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:41 28:57 85 114
koro kororareka 34:04 23:47 69 93
Birdingbob 34:33 26:31 76 102
boltonwanderer 35:21 26:00 73 98
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 35:29 21:46 61 82
kapietro kapietro 35:36 32:43 91 122
tyrotim tyrotim 36:15 29:33 81 109
Shushannah 36:31 25:46 70 94
clivejharlow 37:03 45:29 122 164
E Bradford 37:56 42:16 111 150
CoxBurglar coxburglar 38:42 21:33 55 74
HanS 38:54 34:06 87 117
joss henry 39:40 17:16 43 58
maryht 40:50 37:24 91 122
baronrob 44:36 21:10 47 63
empty 45:32 33:06 72 97
MartinP MartinP1 47:55 29:27 61 82
Steve Wood 48:12 36:18 75 101
The Real Steve Snackman 49:33 40:35 81 109

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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