Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29036

Date 01 October 2024
Number 29036
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 97
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 19
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29036

* 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
Diskus 05:47 05:15 90 92
verlaine Verlaine 06:28 07:00 108 111
Magoo 06:51 04:45 69 71
Paul Gilbert 06:53 06:08 89 91
hilarym 07:20 07:03 96 98
richard 08:32 06:55 81 83
boulemiche 08:55 08:14 92 94
markdobell 09:39 10:24 107 110
glheard glh 10:23 10:11 98 101
Kinghedger 10:26 12:12 116 119
HoneyBadger 10:38 10:58 103 106
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 20:08 188 193
KenD51 10:42 05:42 53 54
lickert 10:47 12:45 118 121
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:48 09:34 88 90
keriothe_ keriothe 11:15 08:32 75 77
miked1961 11:27 10:52 94 96
neilr neilr 11:27 09:27 82 84
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:32 09:39 83 85
David Crooks dcrooks 11:39 11:15 96 98
scrabbler 11:52 13:32 114 117
edwards.robert1 11:53 12:48 107 110
chriswords 12:02 11:03 91 93
Sheapey Sheapey 12:09 09:30 78 80
aphasic 12:21 16:07 130 134
d.middleton 12:45 13:49 108 111
Golvellius 12:46 14:18 112 115
Silva 13:02 13:13 101 104
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:04 15:04 115 118
michaelbell53 13:09 13:14 100 103
JimboFS 13:15 12:53 97 100
LouWeed LouWeed 13:27 10:57 81 83
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:42 19:44 144 148
Ben Staveley 13:52 18:01 129 132
Semillon 13:59 10:29 74 76
Tibthorpe 14:01 14:14 101 104
alexh 14:24 15:43 109 112
cdb_100 14:25 15:43 109 112
myles 14:36 20:11 138 142
JezWoolfrey 14:56 16:51 112 115
CentralLine CentralLine 15:01 18:52 125 128
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 15:09 13:00 85 87
johninterred Johninterred 15:10 16:03 105 108
BlackburnRover 15:12 14:55 98 101
Finzi 15:16 15:50 103 106
Looch 15:19 15:18 99 102
phthisis 15:31 16:25 105 108
andrewlake 15:32 14:11 91 93
tapbarker 15:48 11:47 74 76
RobR RobR 15:57 13:16 83 85
MK76 15:58 21:58 137 141
Achernar 16:16 21:36 132 136
DunPangolin 16:21 14:18 87 89
Squallaby 16:27 20:59 127 130
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 16:41 16:51 100 103
ilan 16:51 16:35 98 101
Stavros Stavrolex 17:11 16:45 97 100
Crossiant 17:16 17:14 99 102
GMcD 17:19 23:04 133 137
pterodactyl 17:56 20:10 112 115
Foozler 18:06 18:47 103 106
LuckOfLucien 18:11 15:48 86 88
SeamusX 18:25 12:16 66 68
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:43 16:41 89 91
Mike C 18:44 18:11 97 100
Curarist Curarist 18:49 16:11 86 88
FraserH 18:50 20:18 107 110
John Arnold 19:05 18:15 95 97
TB22 19:09 10:08 52 53
Zander 19:22 14:14 73 75
Solver52 19:26 19:15 99 102
UisceTe 19:34 16:28 84 86
uvofiz 19:47 20:39 104 107
Hamish.S 20:08 25:50 128 131
Andrew Whiffin 20:11 21:29 106 109
DamienKnapma 20:16 22:29 110 113
Vannyx 20:43 19:45 95 97
Upfisher 21:04 22:09 105 108
Nangle 21:11 19:18 91 93
Leegoods 21:59 28:43 130 134
Tudds 22:29 24:33 109 112
Corymbia Corymbia 22:31 16:35 73 75
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 22:52 19:53 86 88
goblin 22:59 28:49 125 128
richardCV22 22:59 18:12 79 81
gsriordan52 23:16 19:21 83 85
Rowlie26 23:35 36:41 155 159
tony the butcher montana 24:05 23:28 97 100
Dr Dolittle 24:07 23:16 96 98
Crippens1 24:29 19:48 80 82
Fidelio 24:31 28:59 118 121
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 25:43 104 107
Dr_Bob 24:51 26:34 106 109
Sheen 25:02 18:51 75 77
jimancliffe 25:07 22:18 88 90
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:07 29:43 118 121
Aldus 25:09 28:22 112 115
chris661554 25:34 22:11 86 88
En Cee 25:48 28:41 111 114
Jagsfan1971 25:56 28:12 108 111
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 26:00 24:05 92 94
Yatton50 26:04 31:22 120 123
hugapug 26:09 28:01 107 110
uffindellbirtjn 26:33 22:16 83 85
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:34 29:51 112 115
Brenk Brenk1 26:35 23:00 86 88
ulaca ulaca 27:19 30:11 110 113
crucihacker 27:19 27:30 100 103
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:10 44:26 152 156
gbestanley 29:39 31:53 107 110
nekabue 29:40 22:12 74 76
rosselliot 30:12 35:09 116 119
Jeeves 31:38 23:03 72 74
Cryptique 31:48 25:58 81 83
alistair.boere 31:50 38:04 119 122
simjt simjt 32:22 28:09 86 88
Lloyd 32:28 30:32 94 96
annikins 32:44 39:42 121 124
vinyl12345 vinyl1 33:05 31:06 94 96
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:11 33:32 101 104
starstruck starstruck_au 33:59 37:55 111 114
Birdingbob 34:19 31:01 90 92
dosbarth 34:42 22:44 65 67
koro kororareka 35:07 38:53 110 113
bruce.johnston22 35:09 44:23 126 129
boltonwanderer 35:22 23:00 65 67
kapietro kapietro 35:40 28:14 79 81
tyrotim tyrotim 35:46 34:53 97 100
Shushannah 36:45 43:33 118 121
Word Psmith wordpsmith 37:53 34:59 92 94
rv_1 38:20 46:48 122 125
HanS 39:30 36:17 91 93
baronrob 42:53 33:16 77 79
empty 44:59 34:40 77 79
MartinP MartinP1 47:56 45:50 95 97
Steve Wood 48:02 33:54 70 72
intentional rounding 48:10 52:50 109 112
The Real Steve Snackman 48:29 29:18 60 61
kjbr 50:56 53:25 104 107
joss henry 114:15 24:51 21 21

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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