Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 28848

Date 24 February 2024
Number 28848
Day of week Saturday
NITCH 87
Count of ref solvers 33
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 28848

* 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
Nathan Panning 05:37 05:46 102 117
lili 06:12 04:19 69 79
verlaine Verlaine 06:28 05:48 89 102
Jason 06:37 06:44 101 116
Magoo 06:51 04:55 71 81
Paul Gilbert 06:53 05:27 79 90
mistigris 06:56 07:21 106 121
cmjhutton 07:10 05:51 81 93
richard 08:32 06:27 75 86
Umpire 09:38 08:57 92 105
markdobell 09:39 08:29 87 100
chindit 10:20 08:19 80 91
Kinghedger 10:26 12:38 121 139
Deane Short Deane Short 10:29 12:39 120 137
HoneyBadger 10:38 08:39 81 93
lickert 10:47 10:44 99 113
keriothe_ keriothe 11:15 10:37 94 108
SimonAnthony 11:33 08:54 77 88
fshephe 11:35 02:44 23 26
scrabbler 11:52 09:56 83 95
andy 12:04 12:11 100 114
fuzz 12:07 10:31 86 98
Sheapey Sheapey 12:09 12:09 100 114
aphasic 12:21 14:13 115 132
John Walsh 12:48 13:05 102 117
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:58 10:44 82 94
Silva 13:02 10:45 82 94
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:07 11:28 87 100
JimboFS 13:15 12:30 94 108
Derek Harrison 13:34 08:47 64 73
Ben Staveley 13:52 12:47 92 105
Semillon 13:59 09:05 64 73
Tibthorpe 14:01 13:58 99 113
john.brassey 14:17 10:16 71 81
franceslc11 14:23 10:39 74 85
Secondbass 14:42 13:42 93 106
grape 15:00 13:49 92 105
Mike Mansbridge 15:06 04:23 29 33
phthisis 15:31 14:11 91 104
tapbarker 15:48 10:30 66 75
robinh 16:18 13:54 85 97
Stavros Stavrolex 17:11 14:33 84 96
npweston 17:32 02:13 12 13
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 20:53 36:18 173 198
vinyl12345 vinyl1 33:05 48:00 145 166

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.