Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28998

Date 17 August 2024
Number 28998
Day of week Saturday
NITCH 71
Count of ref solvers 29
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28998

* 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
verlaine Verlaine 06:28 05:30 85 119
Jason 06:37 04:56 74 104
Paul Gilbert 06:53 06:57 100 140
mistigris 06:56 06:25 92 129
cmjhutton 07:10 03:56 54 76
hilarym 07:20 05:01 68 95
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 04:34 61 85
richard 08:32 05:52 68 95
Umpire 09:38 09:49 101 142
AlanS 10:21 09:06 87 122
Kinghedger 10:26 07:56 76 107
Deane Short Deane Short 10:29 07:37 72 101
HoneyBadger 10:38 07:50 73 102
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 07:43 72 101
lickert 10:47 05:58 55 77
Heyesey 11:17 07:03 62 87
miked1961 11:27 07:55 69 97
neilr neilr 11:27 08:31 74 104
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:32 09:16 80 112
scrabbler 11:52 08:25 70 98
chriswords 12:02 09:11 76 107
tilbee 12:09 07:57 65 91
Sheapey Sheapey 12:09 09:11 75 105
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:58 08:30 65 91
Silva 13:02 07:58 61 85
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:07 09:39 73 102
njnclarke 13:32 08:21 61 85
Tibthorpe 14:01 08:59 64 90
Groucho 14:05 10:25 73 102
Mike Mansbridge 15:06 10:20 68 95
Stavros Stavrolex 17:11 09:40 56 78
doublecross anguswalker 18:35 09:12 49 69
TB22 19:09 09:05 47 66
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:53 14:49 70 98
TonyN6 32:47 04:56 15 21
vinyl12345 vinyl1 33:05 17:00 51 71
kapietro kapietro 35:40 34:00 95 133
MartinP MartinP1 47:56 45:14 94 132

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.