Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29063

Date 01 November 2024
Number 29063
Day of week Friday
NITCH 82
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 27
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29063

* 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 06:13 107 130
lili 06:10 05:41 92 112
Jason 06:30 07:31 115 140
Paul Gilbert 06:42 07:38 113 137
mistigris 06:56 05:24 77 93
aphis99 aphis99 07:19 09:46 133 162
Contrarian3 09:03 09:11 101 123
asaldanha 09:03 08:05 89 108
Umpire 09:30 10:02 105 128
AlanS 10:18 10:18 100 121
chindit 10:19 09:01 87 106
HoneyBadger 10:31 07:29 71 86
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 09:31 88 107
lickert 10:54 08:45 80 97
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:58 07:54 72 87
keriothe_ keriothe 11:07 12:26 111 135
fuzz 11:29 10:10 88 107
David Crooks dcrooks 11:36 12:29 107 130
edwards.robert1 11:47 11:24 96 117
andy 11:55 10:39 89 108
Sue Sweeper 11:55 09:07 76 92
chriswords 11:58 14:01 117 142
Morphosis 11:58 11:27 95 115
Sheapey Sheapey 12:08 09:59 82 100
tilbee 12:09 14:10 116 141
Ciolf 12:24 08:50 71 86
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:48 14:33 113 137
John Walsh 12:52 10:18 80 97
robertL 12:52 11:10 86 104
d.middleton 12:52 13:58 108 131
Derek Harrison 13:01 14:48 113 137
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:04 10:37 81 98
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:16 10:32 79 96
JimboFS 13:19 09:23 70 85
njnclarke 13:22 08:09 60 73
Silva 13:25 13:18 99 120
Valance 13:44 11:54 86 104
Eddddddd 13:45 12:06 88 107
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:45 09:59 72 87
Pootle Pootle 13:47 12:14 88 107
Peponi13 14:04 12:01 85 103
Semillon 14:06 10:55 77 93
franceslc11 14:13 15:55 111 135
alexh 14:15 11:06 77 93
cdb_100 14:18 11:24 79 96
Secondbass 14:22 15:06 105 128
Crucifer Crucifer 14:30 11:30 79 96
myles 14:37 17:00 116 141
Amoeba 14:47 09:41 65 79
GeorgeTz 14:49 13:39 92 112
CentralLine CentralLine 15:05 12:14 81 98
Looch 15:09 20:07 132 160
Finzi 15:31 14:06 90 109
MK76 15:45 11:34 73 89
RobR RobR 15:52 10:43 67 81
DunPangolin 16:09 15:38 96 117
LJCN 16:09 15:26 95 115
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 16:24 09:36 58 70
robinh 16:25 15:45 95 115
Squallaby 16:35 08:18 50 60
Achernar 16:51 18:03 107 130
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 16:55 19:46 116 141
Encota 17:02 11:24 66 80
PGooden 17:14 13:30 78 95
Crossiant 17:14 15:32 90 109
Stavros Stavrolex 17:39 11:03 62 75
Foozler 17:40 14:19 81 98
DanSolo 18:04 11:36 64 78
KET 18:04 13:00 71 86
Gallion Fish 18:17 14:12 77 93
pterodactyl 18:20 12:30 68 82
Curarist Curarist 18:27 24:05 130 158
valerian1967 18:29 15:01 81 98
tds 18:29 11:16 60 73
SeamusX 18:34 10:34 56 68
McBeakLives 18:35 12:40 68 82
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:53 20:57 110 134
rrricharrrd 19:03 10:51 56 68
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:07 13:39 71 86
daniel.faith 19:21 17:42 91 110
uvofiz 19:41 13:25 68 82
TB22 19:50 07:45 39 47
Hamish.S 20:05 18:58 94 114
andrewfeist96 20:09 18:38 92 112
squark 20:16 14:24 71 86
dec 20:19 17:25 85 103
Astonvilla1 20:29 18:24 89 108
george.garlick 20:47 16:26 79 96
Upfisher 21:01 16:20 77 93
Nangle 21:06 22:16 105 128
Rod B 21:20 14:02 65 79
david_ch 21:24 16:40 77 93
Tudds 22:22 12:56 57 69
Terrier 22:33 18:38 82 100
janesa 22:48 17:06 75 91
goblin 23:04 20:06 87 106
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 23:11 15:56 68 82
richardCV22 23:18 22:36 96 117
gsriordan52 23:53 18:13 76 92
Fidelio 23:55 21:46 91 110
klamery4 24:15 20:37 85 103
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:30 20:34 83 101
chris661554 25:13 29:49 118 143
JayEm 25:15 25:55 102 124
Jagsfan1971 25:45 19:09 74 90
Deezzaa Deezzaa 25:52 15:07 58 70
SlumdogEngineer 26:12 23:05 88 107
Aldus 26:28 22:23 84 102
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 26:37 31:11 117 142
bobbb 26:46 16:36 62 75
uffindellbirtjn 26:49 17:23 64 78
Yatton50 26:54 26:33 98 119
cacs 27:12 02:32 9 10
ulaca ulaca 27:17 21:51 80 97
crucihacker 27:19 17:34 64 78
barracuda barracuda 27:23 16:36 60 73
Grumpole Grumpole 27:44 16:58 61 74
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:18 21:27 73 89
NAPASAI napasai 29:55 17:42 59 71
nekabue 30:05 25:28 84 102
Manveru 31:08 19:08 61 74
Cryptique 31:24 39:56 127 154
Lloyd 32:26 27:04 83 101
annikins 33:23 26:02 77 93
starstruck starstruck_au 34:01 32:51 96 117
Birdingbob 34:25 25:54 75 91
koro kororareka 35:01 24:12 69 84
boltonwanderer 35:10 31:00 88 107
kapietro kapietro 35:29 23:29 66 80
Maggot 36:14 30:53 85 103
Shushannah 36:35 36:48 100 121
Word Psmith wordpsmith 37:21 15:37 41 50
piltdown man 39:23 62:12 157 191
Steve Wood 46:40 37:22 80 97
MartinP MartinP1 49:38 31:10 62 75
profsjpayne 59:21 38:14 64 78

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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