Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29140

Date 30 January 2025
Number 29140
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 75
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 20
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29140

* 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
mohn mohn2 04:40 04:54 105 140
Nathan Panning 05:59 05:00 83 110
lili 06:11 04:52 78 104
Paul Gilbert 06:14 04:14 67 89
Magoo 06:19 04:13 66 88
Jason 06:26 03:16 50 66
verlaine Verlaine 06:27 06:45 104 138
cmjhutton 06:37 05:28 82 109
aphis99 aphis99 07:17 06:37 90 120
mistigris 07:23 05:44 77 102
samgdavies 08:09 12:01 147 196
richard 08:48 06:36 75 100
boulemiche 08:52 10:24 117 156
asaldanha 09:21 05:10 55 73
fshephe 09:23 12:40 134 178
Umpire 09:28 07:08 75 100
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 09:49 08:29 86 114
markdobell 09:54 06:05 61 81
KenD51 10:08 11:35 114 152
glheard glh 10:20 06:51 66 88
Deane Short Deane Short 10:23 08:04 77 102
chindit 10:40 07:53 73 97
lickert 10:48 06:22 58 77
neilr neilr 11:12 09:32 85 113
keriothe_ keriothe 11:16 09:00 79 105
SimonAnthony 11:17 07:58 70 93
David Crooks dcrooks 11:22 12:41 111 148
fuzz 11:25 10:13 89 118
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:27 11:35 101 134
edwards.robert1 11:33 06:48 58 77
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:41 11:51 101 134
miked1961 11:43 11:43 100 133
andy 11:49 11:45 99 132
tilbee 11:56 08:51 74 98
Morphosis 12:06 11:40 96 128
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:19 10:59 89 118
Sheapey Sheapey 12:22 06:31 52 69
Golvellius 12:23 13:00 104 138
aphasic 12:33 09:49 78 104
njnclarke 12:44 14:33 114 152
John Walsh 12:49 12:58 101 134
Stavros Stavrolex 12:50 08:37 67 89
Amoeba89 Amoeba 13:13 07:32 56 74
JimboFS 13:24 09:45 72 96
Freemers 13:28 13:50 102 136
Silva 13:31 11:40 86 114
LouWeed LouWeed 13:34 09:59 73 97
Penfold_61 Penfold 13:37 10:41 78 104
Peponi13 13:40 14:12 103 137
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:49 12:26 89 118
Secondbass 13:56 09:56 71 94
Tibthorpe 14:00 10:12 72 96
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:06 11:20 80 106
Groucho 14:07 10:20 73 97
alexh 14:11 12:53 90 120
Crucifer Crucifer 14:11 10:37 74 98
myles 14:14 15:55 111 148
EricK 14:15 15:28 108 144
Semillon 14:22 10:00 69 92
Pootle Pootle 14:32 12:49 88 117
Ben Staveley 14:46 09:42 65 86
franceslc11 15:04 13:00 86 114
CentralLine CentralLine 15:13 09:33 62 82
JezWoolfrey 15:15 15:04 98 130
Finzi 15:31 15:38 100 133
andrewlake 15:37 12:48 81 108
grape 15:38 16:07 103 137
DunPangolin 15:57 15:27 96 128
RobR RobR 16:00 13:39 85 113
LJCN 16:10 14:47 91 121
Adelaider 16:11 10:58 67 89
tapbarker 16:16 17:41 108 144
Jeremy S 16:33 14:29 87 116
cdb_100 16:33 11:49 71 94
Encota 16:51 10:40 63 84
Crossiant 16:51 15:56 94 125
robinh 17:04 12:23 72 96
LuckOfLucien 17:08 16:13 94 125
Jeremy Kenyon 17:16 18:22 106 141
McBeakLives 17:35 20:39 117 156
earlylight 17:35 14:48 84 112
GMcD 17:51 15:10 84 112
Mike C 18:20 12:43 69 92
rrricharrrd 18:21 19:44 107 142
Craven 18:26 13:12 71 94
valerian1967 18:41 13:54 74 98
John Arnold 18:48 11:05 58 77
Colin2355 18:57 13:38 71 94
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:05 14:15 74 98
David Bourne 19:16 13:22 69 92
James P Special_bitter 19:23 19:20 99 132
uvofiz 19:57 21:39 108 144
george.garlick 20:30 17:29 85 113
Waterloo 20:35 20:29 99 132
Hamish.S 20:46 17:38 84 112
Kalakuta72 20:53 19:24 92 122
drginacoco 20:57 02:32 12 16
tony the butcher montana 21:12 19:46 93 124
hugh schofield Leskoffer 21:51 13:55 63 84
david_ch 21:53 21:05 96 128
goblin 22:02 21:10 96 128
Rod B 22:16 28:36 128 170
Sheen 22:18 18:39 83 110
Leegoods 23:07 18:27 79 105
Tudds 23:29 17:52 76 101
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 23:58 09:27 39 52
Jagsfan1971 25:04 15:02 59 78
Dr_Bob 25:07 31:19 124 165
Crippens1 25:09 23:36 93 124
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:10 20:27 81 108
SlumdogEngineer 25:30 17:54 70 93
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:55 14:10 54 72
Brenk Brenk1 26:00 22:00 84 112
David Luke 26:11 19:56 76 101
barracuda barracuda 26:18 27:54 106 141
ulaca ulaca 26:28 26:36 100 133
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 27:25 16:59 61 81
crucihacker Crucihacker 27:43 24:14 87 116
Mike Harper Mike Harper 28:30 12:58 45 60
NAPASAI napasai 28:41 28:34 99 132
nekabue 29:47 26:41 89 118
gbestanley 29:52 27:52 93 124
simjt simjt 30:07 26:32 88 117
Jamie Fox 30:11 22:39 75 100
Manveru 30:23 25:39 84 112
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 32:46 39:16 119 158
SK42 33:36 28:32 84 112
Lloyd 33:51 26:55 79 105
Cryptique 33:55 46:14 136 181
koro kororareka 34:12 33:42 98 130
Birdingbob 34:15 37:56 110 146
boltonwanderer 34:56 31:00 88 117
starstruck starstruck_au 35:17 20:36 58 77
gothick gothick 35:43 23:00 64 85
kapietro kapietro 35:44 33:20 93 124
wimpoldo 36:11 20:11 55 73
bruce.johnston22 36:22 81:43 224 298
Shushannah 36:45 38:21 104 138
clivejharlow 37:33 26:39 70 93
j.stanton734 37:52 39:00 102 136
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:54 30:52 81 108
intentional rounding 40:23 31:45 78 104
maryht 41:06 37:07 90 120
E Bradford E Bradford 41:19 25:06 60 80
HanS 41:22 35:40 86 114
The Real Steve Snackman 42:07 29:30 70 93
empty 45:33 34:16 75 100
Steve Wood 45:38 34:42 76 101
Aidleys 46:21 49:18 106 141
MartinP MartinP1 51:14 51:46 101 134

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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