Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29062

Date 31 October 2024
Number 29062
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 11
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29062

* 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 06:45 116 130
Nathan Panning 05:51 05:15 89 100
lili 06:10 04:38 75 84
verlaine Verlaine 06:28 09:32 147 165
Jason 06:30 04:17 65 73
Paul Gilbert 06:42 04:35 68 76
mistigris 06:56 06:18 90 101
aphis99 aphis99 07:19 05:56 81 91
boulemiche 08:52 10:27 117 131
richard 08:52 10:46 121 135
Contrarian3 09:03 06:05 67 75
asaldanha 09:03 06:34 72 80
fshephe 09:23 10:36 112 125
Umpire 09:30 10:20 108 121
markdobell 09:36 08:55 92 103
glheard glh 10:19 09:24 91 102
KenD51 10:24 13:25 129 144
HoneyBadger 10:31 05:47 54 60
Topical Tim Topical Tim 10:41 16:16 152 170
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 11:42 108 121
lickert 10:54 12:52 118 132
Heyesey 11:27 09:07 79 88
miked1961 11:29 17:39 153 171
SimonAnthony 11:34 11:22 98 110
neilr neilr 11:37 10:14 88 98
scrabbler 11:42 09:06 77 86
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:44 15:09 129 144
toots 11:47 09:47 83 93
edwards.robert1 11:47 10:26 88 98
Sue Sweeper 11:55 11:35 97 108
Morphosis 11:58 14:29 121 135
chriswords 11:58 15:34 130 146
Sheapey Sheapey 12:08 08:36 70 78
tilbee 12:09 12:12 100 112
canismiser 12:10 14:07 116 130
Ciolf 12:24 08:02 64 71
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:48 13:00 101 113
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:04 16:04 122 137
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:16 16:01 120 134
Freemers 13:21 12:34 94 105
njnclarke 13:22 12:36 94 105
Silva 13:25 13:14 98 110
LouWeed LouWeed 13:27 14:44 109 122
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:45 14:45 107 120
Tibthorpe 13:57 11:38 83 93
Peponi13 14:04 17:22 123 138
Semillon 14:06 12:32 88 98
Groucho 14:13 11:01 77 86
alexh 14:15 17:45 124 139
cdb_100 14:18 07:22 51 57
Secondbass 14:22 13:24 93 104
Crucifer Crucifer 14:30 13:10 90 101
johninterred Johninterred 15:04 13:54 92 103
BlackburnRover 15:05 14:02 93 104
CentralLine CentralLine 15:05 15:06 100 112
Looch 15:09 15:32 102 114
JezWoolfrey 15:14 18:47 123 138
andrewlake 15:26 15:42 101 113
Finzi 15:31 14:59 96 107
tapbarker 15:50 17:53 112 125
DunPangolin 16:09 15:26 95 106
LJCN 16:09 12:05 74 83
Jeremy S 16:19 17:41 108 121
robinh 16:25 15:32 94 105
Achernar 16:51 18:13 108 121
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:55 11:03 65 73
ilan 17:05 13:26 78 87
Crossiant 17:14 17:15 100 112
PGooden 17:14 19:18 111 124
Foozler 17:40 18:18 103 115
GMcD 17:43 12:06 68 76
Craven 17:53 11:56 66 74
Gallion Fish 18:17 16:46 91 102
LuckOfLucien 18:19 15:04 82 92
FraserH 18:19 15:25 84 94
Adelaider 18:24 13:51 75 84
Curarist Curarist 18:27 14:47 80 89
valerian1967 18:29 24:06 130 146
MrChumley MrChumley 18:30 25:43 139 156
SeamusX 18:34 15:32 83 93
John Arnold 18:39 24:26 131 147
Jeremy Kenyon 18:51 14:41 77 86
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:53 22:55 121 135
rrricharrrd 19:03 15:05 79 88
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:07 19:58 104 116
pc8 19:08 18:33 96 107
James P Special_bitter 19:18 23:32 121 135
uvofiz 19:41 19:20 98 110
TB22 19:50 08:21 42 47
mjsaunders9 19:56 20:09 101 113
KarenR 20:10 22:09 109 122
george.garlick 20:47 24:04 115 129
Nangle 21:06 19:14 91 102
Vannyx 21:17 15:27 72 80
DianeRS 21:19 21:20 100 112
Rod B 21:20 14:41 68 76
Tudds 22:22 19:01 85 95
Terrier 22:33 24:16 107 120
Corymbia Corymbia 22:55 17:25 76 85
goblin 23:04 20:11 87 97
richardCV22 23:18 23:30 100 112
gsriordan52 23:53 15:20 64 71
Fidelio 23:55 17:13 71 79
medodd 23:55 30:36 127 142
Sheen 24:12 16:36 68 76
The Caffeine Kid 24:14 20:36 85 95
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:30 19:44 80 89
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:09 23:57 95 106
Dr_Bob 25:14 25:16 100 112
JayEm 25:15 32:37 129 144
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:18 24:25 96 107
Jagsfan1971 25:45 18:31 71 79
Deezzaa Deezzaa 25:52 28:01 108 121
hugapug 26:03 24:29 93 104
En Cee 26:14 30:48 117 131
Brenk Brenk1 26:15 22:24 85 95
Mudge Mudge 26:16 30:10 114 128
Aldus 26:28 23:53 90 101
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 26:37 19:40 73 82
bobbb 26:46 26:42 99 111
Yatton50 26:54 31:16 116 130
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:00 26:05 96 107
cacs 27:12 25:44 94 105
ulaca ulaca 27:17 15:17 56 62
Dixiegrand 27:18 16:30 60 67
barracuda barracuda 27:23 23:31 85 95
infinitejest 27:33 16:05 58 65
sicoll 28:06 22:35 80 89
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:18 23:58 81 91
gbestanley 29:49 28:11 94 105
nekabue 30:05 25:42 85 95
Dr Dolittle 30:51 28:10 91 102
Manveru 31:08 27:07 87 97
Cryptique 31:24 07:31 23 25
RogerC 31:28 28:04 89 100
rosselliot 31:32 33:26 106 119
Lloyd 32:26 23:37 72 80
starstruck starstruck_au 34:01 39:55 117 131
bruce.johnston22 34:02 29:18 86 96
Rookie 34:08 35:31 104 116
vinyl12345 vinyl1 34:24 32:29 94 105
Birdingbob 34:25 24:37 71 79
ofarrell 34:36 26:47 77 86
koro kororareka 35:01 35:47 102 114
boltonwanderer 35:10 29:00 82 92
j.stanton734 35:52 27:09 75 84
rv_1 37:50 55:42 147 165
HanS 39:57 39:09 97 108
intentional rounding 46:24 39:34 85 95
Steve Wood 46:40 52:38 112 125
The Real Steve Snackman 46:42 39:40 84 94
MartinP MartinP1 49:38 64:16 129 144
kjbr 50:27 51:42 102 114
paulmcl paulmcl 55:15 42:02 76 85
profsjpayne 59:21 101:47 171 192

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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