Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29177

Date 14 March 2025
Number 29177
Day of week Friday
NITCH 122
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29177

* 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 04:34 06:30 142 116
Nathan Panning 05:56 06:28 108 88
Diskus 06:07 06:54 112 91
cmjhutton 06:11 08:59 145 118
Jason 06:16 07:01 111 90
Magoo 06:24 06:39 103 84
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 06:56 106 86
Paul Gilbert 06:52 08:01 116 95
hilarym 06:53 09:01 130 106
mistigris 07:19 09:16 126 103
samgdavies 08:07 08:35 105 86
Umpire 09:08 12:33 137 112
fshephe 09:13 10:58 118 96
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 09:15 07:27 80 65
asaldanha 09:32 12:52 134 109
AlanS 09:54 11:37 117 95
markdobell 10:03 12:42 126 103
Deane Short Deane Short 10:39 13:04 122 100
KenD51 10:40 03:31 32 26
chindit 10:46 15:34 144 118
Ciolf 10:52 12:01 110 90
lickert 10:53 16:51 154 126
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:54 17:52 163 133
Kinghedger 11:00 12:20 112 91
scrabbler 11:11 13:19 119 97
keriothe_ keriothe 11:14 13:34 120 98
neilr neilr 11:18 15:01 132 108
andy 11:30 12:57 112 91
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:35 20:33 177 145
David Crooks dcrooks 11:39 14:05 120 98
chriswords 11:39 14:57 128 104
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:41 14:40 125 102
john.brassey 11:47 15:48 134 109
Morphosis 11:51 14:51 125 102
miked1961 11:59 10:59 91 74
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 13:08 109 89
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:02 16:40 138 113
njnclarke 12:12 19:17 158 129
m28ale 12:26 25:48 207 169
Glencairn 12:46 14:50 116 95
Freemers 12:51 10:40 83 68
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 12:59 20:05 154 126
Silva 13:28 22:17 165 135
Groucho 13:28 17:53 132 108
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:34 17:29 128 104
Secondbass 13:43 23:43 172 140
Rinteff Rinteff 13:55 16:00 114 93
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:58 16:14 116 95
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 15:21 109 89
EricK 14:03 20:08 143 117
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:04 17:38 125 102
Semillon 14:16 16:07 112 91
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:20 12:37 88 72
Ben Staveley 14:26 20:04 139 113
Pootle Pootle 14:28 23:28 162 132
Tibthorpe 14:33 18:06 124 101
JezWoolfrey 15:13 25:01 164 134
franceslc11 15:13 16:50 110 90
Finzi 15:15 14:24 94 77
andrewlake 15:36 23:44 152 124
gabrojak 15:43 21:07 134 109
cdb_100 15:48 25:35 161 131
johninterred Johninterred 16:01 21:48 136 111
RobR RobR 16:03 32:20 201 164
CentralLine CentralLine 16:06 21:38 134 109
tapbarker 16:22 23:31 143 117
Encota 16:23 20:06 122 100
Squallaby 16:51 17:47 105 86
julian_w 16:51 19:21 114 93
LJCN 16:52 23:01 136 111
ajcauk1 17:03 17:43 103 84
ilan 17:05 25:43 150 122
PGooden 17:42 21:13 119 97
DanSolo 17:54 22:55 128 104
rrricharrrd 17:55 31:07 173 141
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:08 19:19 106 86
Pxspxs 18:13 25:16 138 113
KET 18:21 18:09 98 80
Mike C 18:26 23:20 126 103
Zander 18:28 19:49 107 87
Jeremy Kenyon 18:36 17:23 93 76
Craven 18:40 23:11 124 101
GMcD 18:40 19:35 104 85
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:49 28:55 153 125
pc8 18:53 30:52 163 133
Colin2355 19:06 21:49 114 93
SeamusX 19:06 21:15 111 90
whichcraft 19:07 20:30 107 87
Curarist Curarist 19:09 20:55 109 89
KarenR 19:17 21:19 110 90
valerian1967 19:34 29:41 151 123
pterodactyl 19:35 24:33 125 102
Nangle 19:45 34:51 176 144
tonym 19:50 27:20 137 112
george.garlick 20:38 21:31 104 85
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:38 40:58 198 162
Grestyman Grestyman 20:41 24:28 118 96
Kalakuta72 20:55 26:26 126 103
Waterloo 21:12 33:23 157 128
Hamish.S 21:18 24:05 113 92
janesa 21:33 26:57 125 102
gsriordan52 21:56 26:46 122 100
goblin 22:08 21:46 98 80
david_ch 22:26 19:00 84 68
DianeRS 22:29 34:27 153 125
JayEm 23:09 35:39 153 125
The Caffeine Kid 23:21 30:47 131 107
klamery4 23:23 30:57 132 108
Corymbia Corymbia 24:00 26:50 111 90
Tudds 24:25 27:18 111 90
Coffell 24:44 44:22 179 146
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:50 23:43 95 77
mjsaunders9 24:54 35:14 141 115
Brenk Brenk1 24:54 31:49 127 104
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:09 32:42 130 106
1234 25:28 33:03 129 105
SlumdogEngineer 25:31 37:47 148 121
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:08 51:37 197 161
En Cee 26:33 36:52 138 113
ulaca ulaca 26:45 41:36 155 127
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:32 35:28 128 104
Yatton50 27:42 37:22 134 109
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:50 30:57 111 90
Jamie Fox 27:52 40:33 145 118
David Luke 27:59 38:07 136 111
Aldus 28:05 26:30 94 77
gbestanley 29:49 38:27 128 104
wimpoldo 30:07 29:17 97 79
simjt simjt 30:12 40:55 135 110
Mudge Mudge 30:57 37:07 119 97
Jeeves 31:11 26:24 84 68
boltonwanderer 34:00 34:00 100 81
BertieVII 34:01 34:47 102 83
koro kororareka 34:28 43:45 126 103
Lloyd 34:35 41:04 118 96
Cryptique 34:35 55:38 160 131
Rookie 35:14 35:07 99 81
MalcolmD 35:58 64:21 178 145
Shushannah 36:07 47:33 131 107
Dr Dolittle 37:29 52:00 138 113
starstruck starstruck_au 37:56 46:45 123 100
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 38:01 46:19 121 99
The Real Steve Snackman 39:22 43:00 109 89
rv_1 39:25 57:34 146 119
E Bradford E Bradford 41:54 43:18 103 84
CoxBurglar coxburglar 44:09 41:57 95 77
Steve Wood 44:36 50:50 113 92
empty 46:16 47:31 102 83
MartinP MartinP1 50:35 82:36 163 133

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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