Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29183

Date 21 March 2025
Number 29183
Day of week Friday
NITCH 260
Count of ref solvers 44
Ref solvers excluded with errors 18
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29183

* 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
Nathan Panning 05:56 20:14 341 131
cmjhutton 06:11 16:11 261 100
lili 06:12 13:55 224 86
Magoo 06:24 13:13 206 79
Umpire 09:08 16:37 181 69
richard 09:12 30:05 326 125
fshephe 09:13 16:29 178 68
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 09:15 18:28 199 76
Mike Mansbridge 10:02 40:49 406 156
chindit 10:46 26:36 247 95
edwards.robert1 10:50 14:27 133 51
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:54 29:22 269 103
keriothe_ keriothe 11:14 26:22 234 90
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:35 45:52 395 151
tilbee 12:00 27:57 232 89
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 34:07 283 108
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:02 47:25 394 151
Golvellius 12:17 29:13 237 91
Stavros Stavrolex 12:48 78:30 613 235
Freemers 12:51 11:17 87 33
EricK 14:03 52:03 370 142
Semillon 14:16 29:37 207 79
Finzi 15:15 26:44 175 67
andrewlake 15:36 22:56 147 56
cdb_100 15:48 39:02 247 95
Squallaby 16:51 90:53 539 207
LJCN 16:52 67:02 397 152
robinh 17:02 32:38 191 73
ilan 17:05 31:40 185 71
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:08 61:36 339 130
Mike C 18:26 21:09 114 43
Zander 18:28 55:46 301 115
ramf 18:38 37:29 201 77
GMcD 18:40 47:46 255 98
pc8 18:53 41:42 220 84
Curarist Curarist 19:09 58:12 303 116
valerian1967 19:34 63:54 326 125
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:58 50:50 254 97
stainl665 20:41 42:27 205 78
Grestyman Grestyman 20:41 58:36 283 108
Kalakuta72 20:55 18:44 89 34
goblin 22:08 39:11 177 68
JayEm 23:09 47:51 206 79
Coffell 24:44 35:53 145 55
mjsaunders9 24:54 71:34 287 110
ratterz 25:37 52:24 204 78
barracuda barracuda 26:34 55:05 207 79
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:32 75:00 272 104
David Luke 27:59 58:51 210 80
crucihacker Crucihacker 28:11 84:54 301 115
ofarrell 28:13 52:44 186 71
td349 28:33 113:28 397 152
Charpentier 29:19 48:31 165 63
alexngbr 29:19 66:50 227 87
Jeeves 31:11 67:50 217 83
Gussie 31:14 52:53 169 65
Cryptique 34:35 95:36 276 106
SK42 35:29 78:49 222 85
Shushannah 36:07 102:32 283 108
starstruck starstruck_au 37:56 92:37 244 93
The Real Steve Snackman 39:22 81:31 207 79
HanS 41:37 35:58 86 33
CoxBurglar coxburglar 44:09 50:13 113 43
Steve Wood 44:36 112:49 252 96

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back