Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29191

Date 31 March 2025
Number 29191
Day of week Monday
NITCH 63
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 30
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29191

* 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
Paul Gilbert 05:52 04:11 71 112
Magoo 05:55 04:40 78 123
Nathan Panning 05:57 04:13 70 111
cmjhutton 06:06 05:40 92 146
lili 06:07 04:31 73 115
Diskus 06:11 04:21 70 111
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 03:52 59 93
hilarym 06:51 04:48 70 111
aphis99 aphis99 07:18 04:56 67 106
mistigris 07:19 04:31 61 96
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:46 04:31 51 80
boulemiche 08:47 06:53 78 123
Umpire 09:03 08:10 90 142
fshephe 09:12 09:39 104 165
asaldanha 09:28 06:09 64 101
richard 09:31 05:32 58 92
AlanS 09:38 06:59 72 114
markdobell 09:57 05:15 52 82
Kinghedger 10:43 06:12 57 90
SimonAnthony 10:47 05:44 53 84
Deane Short Deane Short 10:49 09:14 85 134
lickert 10:55 07:02 64 101
scrabbler 11:10 07:00 62 98
neilr neilr 11:11 11:10 99 157
toots 11:15 07:08 63 100
keriothe_ keriothe 11:25 04:27 38 60
ChuckB 11:29 07:34 65 103
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:37 06:51 58 92
chriswords 11:39 09:30 81 128
Heyesey 11:44 06:44 57 90
miked1961 11:47 05:31 46 73
Sheapey Sheapey 11:57 07:28 62 98
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:00 05:35 46 73
tilbee 12:01 07:22 61 96
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:07 09:07 75 119
njnclarke 12:14 10:21 84 133
m28ale 12:20 10:09 82 130
aphasic 12:34 08:08 64 101
Freemers 12:42 11:14 88 139
Glencairn 12:46 09:17 72 114
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 13:08 09:31 72 114
JimboFS 13:11 09:11 69 109
Secondbass 13:13 07:46 58 92
Paul Bacon 13:14 11:36 87 138
Silva 13:16 09:19 70 111
Stavros Stavrolex 13:28 10:01 74 117
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:38 09:17 68 107
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:53 08:44 62 98
alexh 13:55 10:19 74 117
Peponi13 14:11 11:26 80 126
Semillon 14:15 10:26 73 115
Rinteff Rinteff 14:16 12:40 88 139
EricK 14:17 07:24 51 80
Adelaider 14:25 06:56 48 76
drginacoco 14:28 01:52 12 19
Tibthorpe 14:38 11:35 79 125
Pootle Pootle 14:49 11:04 74 117
myles 15:00 11:30 76 120
BlackburnRover 15:10 13:09 86 136
Looch 15:11 08:42 57 90
Finzi 15:11 10:43 70 111
gabrojak 15:24 12:01 78 123
TB22 15:26 07:03 45 71
chriswestontour Chris West 15:36 14:41 94 149
andrewlake 15:45 11:10 70 111
cdb_100 15:47 10:50 68 107
RobR RobR 15:50 15:09 95 150
tapbarker 15:59 11:22 71 112
CentralLine CentralLine 16:10 08:14 50 79
julian_w 16:28 10:38 64 101
Jeremy S 16:40 13:31 81 128
LuckOfLucien 16:59 10:58 64 101
ilan 17:04 13:30 79 125
rrricharrrd 17:06 08:54 52 82
ajcauk1 17:09 13:15 77 122
Crossiant 17:26 11:59 68 107
Cookincats 17:27 11:05 63 100
robinh 17:33 15:24 87 138
Achernar 17:35 12:34 71 112
PGooden 17:40 11:35 65 103
LJCN 17:52 10:57 61 96
Gallion Fish 17:53 11:44 65 103
KET 18:06 15:17 84 133
Foozler 18:06 14:38 80 126
Vannyx 18:12 14:27 79 125
Jeremy Kenyon 18:13 12:47 70 111
Zander 18:20 10:32 57 90
endafk 18:40 18:03 96 152
GMcD 18:49 09:15 49 77
David Bourne 18:56 12:12 64 101
KarenR 19:14 10:04 52 82
pc8 19:15 08:53 46 73
Curarist Curarist 19:16 09:51 51 80
pterodactyl 19:22 12:52 66 104
uvofiz 19:37 11:38 59 93
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:46 13:30 68 107
Astonvilla1 19:56 10:58 55 87
Astonvilla.1 20:01 10:58 54 85
DamienKnapma 20:03 16:27 82 130
Rosey6 20:34 25:02 121 192
kath 20:39 15:19 74 117
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:53 13:46 65 103
Hamish.S 21:09 11:54 56 88
James P Special_bitter 21:18 11:17 52 82
dr.shred 21:33 12:42 58 92
goblin 22:06 14:31 65 103
david_ch 22:14 13:00 58 92
The Caffeine Kid 22:16 15:09 68 107
Rod B 22:17 13:20 59 93
gsriordan52 22:21 14:45 65 103
Corymbia Corymbia 23:12 14:18 61 96
hofzinser 23:24 15:47 67 106
JayEm 23:28 16:34 70 111
infinitejest 23:37 23:21 98 155
Tudds 24:05 13:22 55 87
medodd 24:36 14:43 59 93
steve.laverock 24:46 22:35 91 144
Coffell 25:03 16:54 67 106
chris661554 25:03 13:46 54 85
1234 25:03 13:34 54 85
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:08 17:42 70 111
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 15:44 62 98
Crippens1 25:18 15:25 60 95
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:31 21:10 82 130
Deezzaa Deezzaa 25:59 18:06 69 109
barracuda barracuda 26:28 17:09 64 101
En Cee 26:33 22:20 84 133
Jamie Fox 27:19 17:58 65 103
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:34 14:21 52 82
Aldus 27:39 17:43 64 101
td349 28:20 23:41 83 131
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:29 18:04 63 100
Manveru 28:37 22:54 80 126
Menelaus 28:52 29:23 101 160
RogerC 29:21 19:13 65 103
gbestanley 29:30 30:14 102 161
simjt simjt 30:01 16:58 56 88
crucihacker Crucihacker 30:23 23:10 76 120
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:31 11:26 36 57
tyrotim tyrotim 32:08 27:16 84 133
BertieVII 32:32 20:11 62 98
koro kororareka 33:03 18:16 55 87
alexngbr 33:12 20:25 61 96
NAPASAI napasai 33:58 26:46 78 123
Cryptique 34:34 35:38 103 163
kapietro kapietro 34:52 23:59 68 107
JoeyC 35:18 16:53 47 74
Shushannah 35:22 23:32 66 104
Wanderlust 36:12 24:02 66 104
jackk.larg 36:34 25:58 71 112
Dr Dolittle 37:56 15:06 39 61
The Real Steve Snackman 38:06 18:26 48 76
clivejharlow 38:09 22:28 58 92
E Bradford E Bradford 39:12 22:07 56 88
rv_1 39:31 20:31 51 80
HanS 39:33 26:51 67 106
maryht 40:12 29:24 73 115
empty 46:22 34:26 74 117
MichaelE 50:14 24:11 48 76
MartinP MartinP1 50:39 26:42 52 82

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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