Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5104

Date 24 March 2024
Number 5104
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 83
Count of ref solvers 43
Ref solvers excluded with errors 1
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5104

* 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
lili 06:12 05:47 93 112
verlaine Verlaine 06:28 06:43 103 124
Jason 06:37 05:45 86 103
Magoo 06:51 06:57 101 121
Paul Gilbert 06:53 03:53 56 67
aphis99 aphis99 07:24 08:50 119 143
richard 08:32 06:03 70 84
boulemiche 08:55 08:44 97 116
markdobell 09:39 13:35 140 168
AlanS 10:21 09:55 95 114
Kinghedger 10:26 11:37 111 133
HoneyBadger 10:38 10:50 101 121
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:40 06:16 58 69
lickert 10:47 07:30 69 83
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:48 13:04 120 144
Jim Willis 10:53 10:34 97 116
christopherclark4945 11:09 10:04 90 108
Heyesey 11:17 09:58 88 106
miked1961 11:27 08:44 76 91
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:32 10:54 94 113
SimonAnthony 11:33 08:58 77 92
fshephe 11:35 02:23 20 24
Henry White 11:52 09:01 75 90
canismiser 11:56 09:04 75 90
chriswords 12:02 09:55 82 98
andy 12:04 09:13 76 91
fuzz 12:07 10:43 88 106
Sheapey Sheapey 12:09 13:52 114 137
John Walsh 12:48 09:35 74 89
robertL 12:49 10:14 79 95
michaelbell53 13:09 14:58 113 136
Freemers 13:50 12:24 89 107
Ben Staveley 13:52 09:22 67 80
Semillon 13:59 12:36 90 108
Tibthorpe 14:01 13:52 98 118
franceslc11 14:23 10:31 73 87
GeorgeTz 14:35 12:15 84 101
Finzi 15:16 13:53 90 108
Looch 15:19 13:44 89 107
phthisis 15:31 14:51 95 114
andrewlake 15:32 11:31 74 89
Achernar 16:16 12:01 73 87
robinh 16:18 14:15 87 104
DunPangolin 16:21 15:00 91 109
ilan 16:51 13:59 82 98
PGooden 17:06 13:11 77 92
Stavros Stavrolex 17:11 13:54 80 96
Crossiant 17:16 11:18 65 78
GMcD 17:19 13:00 75 90
Mike C 18:44 10:04 53 63
TB22 19:09 09:04 47 56
Corymbia Corymbia 22:31 17:00 75 90
gsriordan52 23:16 14:47 63 75
Dr Dolittle 24:07 04:09 17 20
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 33:11 32:00 96 115

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.