Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29039

Date 04 October 2024
Number 29039
Day of week Friday
NITCH 132
Count of ref solvers 69
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29039

* 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 04:41 05:26 116 87
Nathan Panning 05:37 13:24 238 180
lili 06:12 05:09 83 62
Jason 06:37 07:50 118 89
Magoo 06:51 07:14 105 79
Paul Gilbert 06:53 08:58 130 98
cmjhutton 07:10 07:32 105 79
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 07:50 105 79
richard 08:32 10:29 122 92
Contrarian3 08:49 13:58 158 119
samgdavies 08:58 09:06 101 76
asaldanha 09:07 13:14 145 109
Umpire 09:38 10:15 106 80
markdobell 09:39 12:28 129 97
chindit 10:20 12:22 119 90
AlanS 10:21 13:44 132 100
glheard glh 10:23 14:57 143 108
Kinghedger 10:26 13:58 133 100
Deane Short Deane Short 10:29 23:43 226 171
HoneyBadger 10:38 14:12 133 100
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 19:04 178 134
KenD51 10:42 06:25 59 44
lickert 10:47 15:27 143 108
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:48 15:00 138 104
keriothe_ keriothe 11:15 15:12 135 102
Heyesey 11:17 14:45 130 98
miked1961 11:27 16:27 143 108
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:32 24:22 211 159
fshephe 11:35 13:46 118 89
David Crooks dcrooks 11:39 13:13 113 85
Morphosis 11:45 19:45 168 127
scrabbler 11:52 15:24 129 97
chriswords 12:02 18:25 153 115
andy 12:04 14:24 119 90
tilbee 12:09 19:39 161 121
Sheapey Sheapey 12:09 14:53 122 92
Golvellius 12:46 20:10 157 118
Silva 13:02 22:48 174 131
JimboFS 13:15 21:28 162 122
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:42 16:51 122 92
Pootle Pootle 13:45 18:58 137 103
Freemers 13:50 19:13 138 104
howardwilde1 13:53 21:54 157 118
Eddddddd 13:59 14:23 102 77
Semillon 13:59 25:34 182 137
Tibthorpe 14:01 22:32 160 121
Crucifer Crucifer 14:23 13:55 96 72
gabrojak 14:23 20:15 140 106
alexh 14:24 19:00 131 99
cdb_100 14:25 17:34 121 91
Secondbass 14:42 22:02 149 112
hatterboy 14:45 26:32 179 135
CentralLine CentralLine 15:01 22:06 147 111
Finzi 15:16 17:05 111 84
Looch 15:19 15:04 98 74
phthisis 15:31 23:38 152 115
andrewlake 15:32 21:23 137 103
tapbarker 15:48 20:02 126 95
RobR RobR 15:57 21:22 133 100
LJCN 15:59 22:08 138 104
Amoeba 16:13 17:05 105 79
DunPangolin 16:21 21:14 129 97
Squallaby 16:27 27:56 169 128
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 16:41 21:33 129 97
ilan 16:51 20:56 124 93
Encota 16:58 23:31 138 104
MrChumley MrChumley 17:04 45:58 269 203
Crossiant 17:16 18:04 104 78
GMcD 17:19 34:24 198 150
Colin2355 17:35 29:30 167 126
Craven 17:42 21:20 120 90
pterodactyl 17:56 32:47 182 137
McBeakLives 18:22 26:04 141 106
SeamusX 18:25 27:16 148 112
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:43 25:02 133 100
julian_w 18:43 19:46 105 79
Curarist Curarist 18:49 25:39 136 103
hopkinb hopkinb 18:51 22:55 121 91
pc8 19:04 31:38 165 125
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:05 24:27 128 96
Jeremy Kenyon 19:10 13:31 70 53
rrricharrrd 19:12 26:13 136 103
Zander 19:22 26:44 138 104
daniel.faith 19:31 18:57 97 73
UisceTe 19:34 30:57 158 119
uvofiz 19:47 26:40 134 101
Vannyx 20:43 29:34 142 107
Rod B 20:51 17:02 81 61
Onelug 21:04 29:01 137 103
Nangle 21:11 24:24 115 87
Corymbia Corymbia 22:31 27:11 120 90
goblin 22:59 28:20 123 93
richardCV22 22:59 41:57 182 137
stainl665 23:04 31:27 136 103
gsriordan52 23:16 25:52 111 84
The Caffeine Kid 23:40 33:05 139 105
janesa 23:46 32:52 138 104
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:15 41:24 170 128
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:07 41:27 165 125
Aldus 25:09 39:34 157 118
JayEm 25:54 33:13 128 96
Jagsfan1971 25:56 51:06 197 149
Yatton50 26:04 41:46 160 121
uffindellbirtjn 26:33 39:01 146 110
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:34 37:50 142 107
Brenk Brenk1 26:35 32:07 120 90
ulaca ulaca 27:19 31:55 116 87
SK42 28:22 44:34 157 118
hipponym 29:02 28:25 97 73
symbenall2 29:08 66:41 228 172
NAPASAI napasai 29:22 34:54 118 89
Winchelt 29:29 32:47 111 84
gbestanley 29:39 33:52 114 86
nekabue 29:40 49:41 167 126
Manveru 31:05 34:27 110 83
Cryptique 31:48 41:25 130 98
alistair.boere 31:50 42:06 132 100
BertieVII 32:08 56:21 175 132
FelicityTT 32:18 34:17 106 80
Lloyd 32:28 51:10 157 118
Rookie 32:41 36:00 110 83
annikins 32:44 49:30 151 114
starstruck starstruck_au 33:59 43:54 129 97
Birdingbob 34:19 38:15 111 84
koro kororareka 35:07 32:53 93 70
bruce.johnston22 35:09 38:36 109 82
boltonwanderer 35:22 58:00 163 123
kapietro kapietro 35:40 58:32 164 124
Word Psmith wordpsmith 37:53 63:42 168 127
piltdown man 38:38 38:24 99 75
hydrochoos hydrochoos 39:14 43:00 109 82
HanS 39:30 45:51 116 87
E Bradford 42:27 63:56 150 113
CoxBurglar coxburglar 43:47 34:37 79 59
empty 44:59 39:17 87 65
MartinP MartinP1 47:56 94:43 197 149
intentional rounding 48:10 41:09 85 64
The Real Steve Snackman 48:29 35:02 72 54
kjbr 50:56 67:14 132 100
profsjpayne 57:56 100:06 172 130
paulmcl paulmcl 58:28 78:17 133 100

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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