Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5155

Date 16 March 2025
Number 5155
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 131
Count of ref solvers 41
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5155

* 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
cmjhutton 06:11 07:18 118 90
Jason 06:16 12:24 197 150
Magoo 06:24 06:54 107 81
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 13:44 210 160
Paul Gilbert 06:52 07:29 108 82
aphis99 aphis99 07:15 11:33 159 121
donalhurley11 08:08 17:52 219 167
Legbiter 08:40 19:21 223 170
Icarus 08:51 15:22 173 132
fshephe 09:13 10:06 109 83
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 09:15 11:47 127 96
tunflog 09:20 08:15 88 67
markdobell 10:03 10:07 100 76
DennisO 10:39 08:00 75 57
chindit 10:46 19:17 179 136
edwards.robert1 10:50 19:55 183 139
Ciolf 10:52 20:30 188 143
Heyesey 10:53 11:09 102 77
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 10:54 19:59 183 139
scrabbler 11:11 15:30 138 105
keriothe_ keriothe 11:14 24:53 221 168
andy 11:30 09:31 82 62
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:41 17:21 148 112
john.brassey 11:47 10:32 89 67
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:58 21:51 182 138
Sheapey Sheapey 12:01 16:05 133 101
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:02 15:08 125 95
Sue Sweeper 12:10 21:03 173 132
Glencairn 12:46 17:21 135 103
Freemers 12:51 16:45 130 99
Secondbass 13:43 22:25 163 124
robertL 13:49 17:13 124 94
MJLD 13:58 03:48 27 20
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 14:04 16:06 114 87
Adelaider 14:35 23:01 157 119
Looch 15:12 20:54 137 104
franceslc11 15:13 23:01 151 115
Finzi 15:15 17:36 115 87
andrewlake 15:36 19:24 124 94
RobR RobR 16:03 20:13 125 95
TB22 16:12 13:38 84 64
tapbarker 16:22 22:13 135 103
phthisis 16:43 24:26 146 111
Valance 16:59 21:58 129 98
robinh 17:02 25:06 147 112
DanSolo 17:54 24:23 136 103
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:08 14:37 80 61
Zander 18:28 20:12 109 83
GMcD 18:40 24:59 133 101
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:49 21:47 115 87
Colin2355 19:06 22:50 119 90
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:58 22:26 112 85
janesa 21:33 20:58 97 74
goblin 22:08 22:41 102 77
JayEm 23:09 13:58 60 45
Corymbia Corymbia 24:00 20:09 83 63
starstruck starstruck_au 37:56 15:44 41 31

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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