Quick Cryptic Crossword Stats 2022

 

My TimesforTheTimes post on Friday was for the last Times Quick Cryptic crossword for the year and it provoked some interesting discussion...

...about level of difficulty. It was started by Cedric...

His indication of Breadman, Joker and Wurm being among the harder setters chimed with me. Then L-Plates chipped in....

An impressive improvement over the year. So how have I improved (or not)? My stats go back to 2015.

1 more from L-Plates

To explain, the SCC is the "slow-coach club", consisting of solvers who take more than 20 minutes to solve a QC.

So I thought I'd do some analysis by setter of my own times last year. And here it is...

After the conversation earlier this week I set about analysing my own times for 2022. FWIW this was the result...

Setter	Ave Time	Puzzles
Marty	04:36	1
Trelawney	04:41	8
Tracy	04:42	13
Orpheus	04:50	24
Hurley	05:04	23
Oink	05:15	12
Hawthorn	05:17	5
Kenny	05:19	1
Izetti	05:34	24
Pedro	05:34	11
Mara	05:35	24
Rongo	05:38	3
Juno	05:42	4
Teazel	05:42	25
Corelli	05:45	4
Jalna	05:47	9
Breadman	05:48	16
Joker	05:53	24
Beck	06:00	1
Alconiere	06:02	4
Felix	06:07	7
Wurm	06:25	11
Alfie	07:39	3
Parkin	08:04	1

I was surprised to see Wurm so far down the list, but one puzzle that took me over 12 minutes bumped up the average quite a lot. It has made me wonder if Wurm is another pseudonym for Richard Rogan, the editor, who sets under the names Corelli, Alconiere, Felix, Alfie and (I suspect) Parkin.