Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5135

Date 27 October 2024
Number 5135
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 94
Count of ref solvers 40
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5135

* 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
DougMoody 05:30 05:10 93 98
Chris Clark 05:47 03:38 62 65
lili 06:10 07:59 129 137
verlaine Verlaine 06:28 05:41 87 92
Jason 06:30 05:30 84 89
Magoo 06:38 11:45 177 188
mistigris 06:56 06:34 94 100
cmjhutton 07:14 06:14 86 91
Aiberdeen Loon 08:07 06:44 82 87
tunflog 08:37 07:32 87 92
richard 08:52 08:03 90 95
Icarus 08:53 09:02 101 107
fshephe 09:23 04:04 43 45
markdobell 09:36 10:33 109 115
AlanS 10:18 09:20 90 95
chindit 10:19 14:06 136 144
DennisO 10:27 11:46 112 119
Kinghedger 10:30 08:41 82 87
HoneyBadger 10:31 09:16 88 93
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 08:24 77 81
lickert 10:54 08:40 79 84
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:58 13:34 123 130
keriothe_ keriothe 11:07 14:21 129 137
Alan Abrams 11:15 13:02 115 122
miked1961 11:29 15:38 136 144
fuzz 11:29 10:33 91 96
SimonAnthony 11:34 09:03 78 82
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:44 09:42 82 87
edwards.robert1 11:47 15:17 129 137
Sue Sweeper 11:55 11:03 92 97
andy 11:55 10:27 87 92
chriswords 11:58 12:14 102 108
Sheapey Sheapey 12:08 10:02 82 87
tilbee 12:09 11:43 96 102
canismiser 12:10 10:36 87 92
Ciolf 12:24 10:28 84 89
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:48 13:20 104 110
John Walsh 12:52 12:36 97 103
Derek Harrison 13:01 11:37 89 94
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:16 13:14 99 105
Freemers 13:21 16:05 120 127
LouWeed LouWeed 13:27 14:32 108 114
Peponi13 14:04 16:26 116 123
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:22 10:54 75 79
CentralLine CentralLine 15:05 11:59 79 84
Looch 15:09 16:01 105 111
andrewlake 15:26 14:37 94 100
phthisis 15:29 15:29 100 106
tapbarker 15:50 13:48 87 92
robinh 16:25 14:14 86 91
MossDef 17:30 09:54 56 59
Stavros Stavrolex 17:39 13:01 73 77
Mike C 18:25 16:20 88 93
Zander 19:09 13:02 68 72
gsriordan52 23:53 14:45 61 64
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 26:37 23:38 88 93
DrW 27:51 04:58 17 18
Mike Harper Mike Harper 29:18 11:31 39 41
Dr Dolittle 30:51 15:48 51 54
vinyl12345 vinyl1 34:24 29:02 84 89
ofarrell 34:36 06:52 19 20
hydrochoos hydrochoos 41:30 83:00 200 212

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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