Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29181

Date 19 March 2025
Number 29181
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 108
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29181

* 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 06:36 144 133
Diskus 06:07 06:48 111 102
cmjhutton 06:11 07:28 120 111
lili 06:12 06:08 98 90
Jason 06:16 07:37 121 112
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 06:30 99 91
aphis99 aphis99 07:15 10:16 141 130
mistigris 07:19 08:42 118 109
boulemiche 08:48 10:02 114 105
richard 09:12 15:30 168 155
fshephe 09:13 08:03 87 80
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 09:15 07:24 80 74
asaldanha 09:32 08:47 92 85
markdobell 10:03 08:02 79 73
glheard glh 10:10 13:59 137 126
SimonAnthony 10:32 18:05 171 158
Deane Short Deane Short 10:39 15:00 140 129
KenD51 10:40 08:58 84 77
chindit 10:46 12:49 119 110
Ciolf 10:52 11:11 102 94
lickert 10:53 11:22 104 96
Heyesey 10:53 15:12 139 128
scrabbler 11:11 13:09 117 108
keriothe_ keriothe 11:14 10:56 97 89
toots 11:19 15:46 139 128
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:35 13:10 113 104
chriswords 11:39 13:33 116 107
David Crooks dcrooks 11:39 16:25 140 129
Morphosis 11:51 14:35 123 113
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:58 16:27 137 126
tilbee 12:00 13:12 110 101
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 11:45 97 89
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:02 10:02 83 76
Golvellius 12:17 13:57 113 104
d.middleton 12:44 16:19 128 118
Stavros Stavrolex 12:48 14:46 115 106
Freemers 12:51 08:13 63 58
JimboFS 13:06 20:18 154 142
Groucho 13:28 17:07 127 117
Secondbass 13:43 17:15 125 115
Eddddddd 13:47 20:07 145 134
Rinteff Rinteff 13:55 19:23 139 128
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 12:59 92 85
EricK 14:03 08:35 61 56
Semillon 14:16 14:19 100 92
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:20 20:06 140 129
Ben Staveley 14:26 22:30 155 143
Pootle Pootle 14:28 13:57 96 88
Tibthorpe 14:33 14:07 97 89
Adelaider 14:35 16:49 115 106
BlackburnRover 14:45 20:37 139 128
MK76 15:05 18:58 125 115
Looch 15:12 16:11 106 98
franceslc11 15:13 15:18 100 92
Finzi 15:15 15:26 101 93
andrewlake 15:36 19:00 121 112
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 15:47 15:16 96 88
cdb_100 15:48 13:20 84 77
DunPangolin 15:53 16:55 106 98
johninterred Johninterred 16:01 15:23 96 88
tapbarker 16:22 21:19 130 120
Encota 16:23 20:31 125 115
LJCN 16:52 16:10 95 87
McBeakLives 17:01 21:32 126 116
robinh 17:02 18:52 110 101
earlylight 17:35 19:22 110 101
PGooden 17:42 24:04 135 125
Achernar 17:45 18:18 103 95
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:08 25:46 142 131
Gallion Fish 18:17 17:05 93 86
KET 18:21 27:16 148 137
Zander 18:28 26:09 141 130
FraserH 18:31 25:06 135 125
tds 18:37 19:22 104 96
Craven 18:40 19:26 104 96
GMcD 18:40 26:39 142 131
pc8 18:53 16:25 86 79
whichcraft 19:07 22:34 118 109
drginacoco 19:15 02:03 10 9
KarenR 19:17 26:37 138 127
Vannyx 19:20 18:22 95 87
uvofiz 19:30 28:12 144 133
pterodactyl 19:35 19:05 97 89
Astonvilla.1 19:56 29:02 145 134
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:58 25:26 127 117
Upfisher 20:07 26:10 130 120
squark 20:15 16:58 83 76
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:38 18:02 87 80
george.garlick 20:38 23:38 114 105
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:54 19:09 91 84
Kalakuta72 20:55 22:29 107 99
UisceTe 21:10 22:23 105 97
gsriordan52 21:56 25:01 114 105
goblin 22:08 30:21 137 126
Rod B 22:16 31:07 139 128
JayEm 23:09 28:11 121 112
The Caffeine Kid 23:21 17:21 74 68
Corymbia Corymbia 24:00 24:39 102 94
Tudds 24:25 20:29 83 76
steve.laverock 24:38 31:16 126 116
Coffell 24:44 31:09 125 115
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:50 22:51 92 85
mjsaunders9 24:54 22:09 88 81
chris661554 24:58 26:59 108 100
JoeyC 25:02 24:09 96 88
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:09 27:20 108 100
ratterz 25:37 25:38 100 92
Grumpole Grumpole 26:06 30:04 115 106
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:08 32:23 123 113
En Cee 26:33 28:57 109 100
barracuda barracuda 26:34 29:13 109 100
ulaca ulaca 26:45 53:19 199 184
ChrisBrea 27:00 22:00 81 75
Dr_Bob 27:01 27:14 100 92
Dixiegrand 27:18 21:28 78 72
Edprof 27:26 31:30 114 105
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:32 27:59 101 93
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:50 23:38 84 77
Jamie Fox 27:52 33:02 118 109
timbo 27:53 23:56 85 78
David Luke 27:59 30:19 108 100
Aldus 28:05 32:08 114 105
td349 28:33 38:54 136 125
raincloud 29:15 20:39 70 64
gbestanley 29:49 35:24 118 109
Jeeves 31:11 25:45 82 75
Gussie 31:14 25:14 80 74
JGP 32:45 85:43 261 241
boltonwanderer 34:00 31:00 91 84
koro kororareka 34:28 32:29 94 87
Cryptique 34:35 19:52 57 52
Rookie 35:14 37:31 106 98
SK42 35:29 21:43 61 56
MalcolmD 35:58 41:56 116 107
Shushannah 36:07 39:30 109 100
clivejharlow 36:54 35:51 97 89
baronrob 37:13 78:22 210 194
starstruck starstruck_au 37:56 34:14 90 83
The Real Steve Snackman 39:22 42:35 108 100
HanS 41:37 28:42 68 62
E Bradford E Bradford 41:54 54:26 129 119
j.stanton734 42:10 32:53 77 71
CoxBurglar coxburglar 44:09 31:47 71 65
Steve Wood 44:36 50:08 112 103
hydrochoos hydrochoos 44:36 56:00 125 115
empty 46:16 46:31 100 92
MartinP MartinP1 50:35 57:02 112 103

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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