Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29031

Date 25 September 2024
Number 29031
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 110
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29031

* 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 06:24 134 121
Nathan Panning 05:40 05:59 105 95
Diskus 05:43 06:48 118 107
Magoo 06:11 06:21 102 92
Jason 06:23 06:03 94 85
lili 06:24 04:35 71 64
verlaine Verlaine 06:30 07:57 122 110
Paul Gilbert 07:02 06:44 95 86
cmjhutton 07:16 07:21 101 91
aphis99 aphis99 07:29 07:26 99 90
Contrarian3 08:44 08:46 100 90
boulemiche 08:57 10:31 117 106
asaldanha 09:03 10:09 112 101
markdobell 09:34 17:12 179 162
Umpire 09:55 07:23 74 67
glheard glh 10:00 11:11 111 100
Kinghedger 10:12 12:40 124 112
chindit 10:14 09:35 93 84
AlanS 10:41 14:10 132 120
KenD51 10:42 06:36 61 55
lickert 10:44 14:45 137 124
HoneyBadger 10:49 11:34 106 96
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:09 12:13 109 99
keriothe_ keriothe 11:22 12:01 105 95
fshephe 11:34 14:00 121 110
SimonAnthony 11:35 10:23 89 80
neilr neilr 11:38 12:04 103 93
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:40 14:31 124 112
David Crooks dcrooks 11:41 12:19 105 95
Morphosis 11:47 13:21 113 102
scrabbler 11:50 15:13 128 116
toots 11:50 20:04 169 153
Sheapey Sheapey 12:00 10:27 87 79
chriswords 12:04 19:00 157 142
andy 12:05 13:20 110 100
edwards.robert1 12:08 12:38 104 94
aphasic 12:46 14:32 113 102
Golvellius 12:47 16:07 126 114
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:58 17:07 132 120
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:00 20:26 157 142
Silva 13:08 16:38 126 114
JimboFS 13:18 13:11 99 90
Paul Bacon 13:20 15:50 118 107
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:39 11:05 81 73
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:48 22:34 163 148
Groucho 13:59 16:49 120 109
gabrojak 14:03 16:37 118 107
Pootle Pootle 14:05 16:35 117 106
fishernick79 14:13 13:38 95 86
Crucifer Crucifer 14:17 12:01 84 76
Semillon 14:17 20:34 143 130
Tibthorpe 14:20 14:39 102 92
Secondbass 14:24 14:40 101 91
alexh 14:31 16:35 114 103
cdb_100 14:38 19:59 136 123
zinzan 14:52 22:22 150 136
CentralLine CentralLine 14:53 21:45 146 132
phthisis 15:09 14:54 98 89
Finzi 15:10 15:10 100 90
BlackburnRover 15:19 17:03 111 100
andrewlake 15:35 19:16 123 111
RobR RobR 15:42 21:02 133 120
MK76 15:46 19:56 126 114
LJCN 15:56 14:35 91 82
Achernar 16:02 24:23 152 138
robinh 16:23 21:21 130 118
Jeremy S 16:33 17:18 104 94
DunPangolin 16:48 17:14 102 92
jimwetzler 16:58 21:20 125 113
ajcauk1 16:59 18:02 106 96
Stavros Stavrolex 17:16 12:13 70 63
Crossiant 17:20 19:58 115 104
PGooden 17:25 19:45 113 102
Colin2355 17:31 18:07 103 93
Craven 17:34 20:40 117 106
Dr Dolittle 17:47 52:09 293 266
LuckOfLucien 18:08 24:15 133 120
rrricharrrd 18:19 22:33 123 111
SeamusX 18:35 27:03 145 131
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:39 26:51 143 130
Jeremy Kenyon 18:51 29:32 156 141
julian_w 18:53 19:52 105 95
Curarist Curarist 18:54 25:50 136 123
Zabadak3 Zabadak 18:58 20:33 108 98
endafk 19:00 22:06 116 105
valerian1967 19:07 24:27 127 115
TB22 19:13 19:16 100 90
pc8 19:24 15:01 77 70
Solver52 19:25 22:52 117 106
James P Special_bitter 19:37 22:24 114 103
Zander 19:40 22:30 114 103
uvofiz 19:54 20:41 103 93
Hamish.S 20:07 22:17 110 100
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:43 24:11 116 105
Upfisher 20:50 21:24 102 92
david_ch 21:10 20:40 97 88
Waterloo 21:13 43:30 205 186
george.garlick 21:36 20:04 92 83
Corymbia Corymbia 21:37 22:59 106 96
Rod B 21:52 34:19 156 141
Leegoods 22:05 23:16 105 95
Tudds 22:23 23:37 105 95
richardCV22 22:46 24:22 107 97
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 22:51 27:55 122 110
stainl665 22:59 23:31 102 92
Jagsfan1971 23:05 28:00 121 110
goblin 23:08 19:24 83 75
JoeyC 23:43 21:05 88 80
jimancliffe 24:13 31:43 130 118
Crippens1 24:24 31:57 130 118
Dr_Bob 24:57 24:59 100 90
chris661554 25:31 36:07 141 128
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:34 28:23 111 100
uffindellbirtjn 25:45 19:08 74 67
Brenk Brenk1 25:49 34:55 135 122
SlumdogEngineer 25:57 34:52 134 121
NAPASAI napasai 25:57 24:16 93 84
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:20 39:02 148 134
crucihacker 26:27 27:38 104 94
Gussie 26:32 21:44 81 73
JayEm 26:43 30:15 113 102
infinitejest 26:45 50:13 187 170
ulaca ulaca 27:14 41:24 152 138
barracuda barracuda 27:22 26:17 96 87
Bert Dove 27:37 26:42 96 87
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:15 33:16 113 102
nekabue 29:18 40:31 138 125
Cryptique 30:40 57:24 187 170
Manveru 30:56 41:44 134 121
rosselliot 31:22 26:31 84 76
RogerC 31:32 34:45 110 100
Lloyd 33:33 46:34 138 125
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:41 39:25 117 106
koro kororareka 34:04 42:35 125 113
Birdingbob 34:33 44:58 130 118
Maggot 34:35 38:21 110 100
starstruck starstruck_au 34:42 44:42 128 116
boltonwanderer 35:21 46:00 130 118
Shushannah 36:31 37:39 103 93
E Bradford 37:56 78:31 206 187
CoxBurglar coxburglar 38:42 82:43 213 193
rv_1 38:45 43:42 112 101
HanS 38:54 44:17 113 102
empty 45:32 60:28 132 120
MartinP MartinP1 47:55 52:57 110 100
Steve Wood 48:12 59:15 122 110
The Real Steve Snackman 49:33 63:15 127 115
kjbr 50:21 106:35 211 191
profsjpayne 54:56 91:11 165 150

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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