Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29193

Date 02 April 2025
Number 29193
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 86
Count of ref solvers 70
Ref solvers excluded with errors 4
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29193

* 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
Magoo 05:55 04:37 78 90
Nathan Panning 05:57 03:59 66 76
cmjhutton 06:06 06:36 108 125
lili 06:07 07:14 118 137
Jason 06:08 06:52 111 129
Diskus 06:11 05:17 85 98
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 04:20 66 76
aphis99 aphis99 07:18 07:05 97 112
mistigris 07:19 05:10 70 81
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:46 06:43 76 88
Umpire 09:03 07:47 86 100
fshephe 09:12 09:28 102 118
AlanS 09:38 06:30 67 77
glheard glh 09:53 06:17 63 73
markdobell 09:57 11:52 119 138
Ciolf 10:31 11:12 106 123
chindit 10:40 06:49 63 73
SimonAnthony 10:47 11:16 104 120
Deane Short Deane Short 10:49 14:32 134 155
lickert 10:55 08:24 76 88
scrabbler 11:10 08:02 71 82
neilr neilr 11:11 10:09 90 104
keriothe_ keriothe 11:25 07:59 69 80
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:28 11:51 103 119
ChuckB 11:29 15:15 132 153
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:32 13:02 113 131
chriswords 11:39 11:06 95 110
Heyesey 11:44 11:07 94 109
Morphosis 11:49 12:56 109 126
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:00 09:41 80 93
tilbee 12:01 13:55 115 133
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:07 11:52 97 112
Golvellius 12:07 13:26 110 127
njnclarke 12:14 09:59 81 94
John Walsh 12:39 13:47 108 125
Freemers 12:42 10:27 82 95
d.middleton 12:50 13:31 105 122
JimboFS 13:11 14:35 110 127
Secondbass 13:13 08:12 62 72
Paul Bacon 13:14 14:42 111 129
Silva 13:16 10:28 78 90
Groucho 13:16 07:49 58 67
Stavros Stavrolex 13:28 10:55 81 94
grape 13:30 11:51 87 101
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:32 11:18 83 96
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:38 14:41 107 124
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 12:17 89 103
alexh 13:55 11:49 84 97
robertL 13:59 17:51 127 147
Semillon 14:15 11:52 83 96
EricK 14:17 13:02 91 105
Adelaider 14:25 12:02 83 96
drginacoco 14:28 05:16 36 41
Ben Staveley 14:32 09:35 65 75
Tibthorpe 14:38 13:54 94 109
Pootle Pootle 14:49 19:29 131 152
Finzi 15:11 11:37 76 88
Looch 15:11 15:51 104 120
TB22 15:26 11:22 73 84
DunPangolin 15:32 12:38 81 94
chriswestontour Chris West 15:36 18:52 120 139
johninterred Johninterred 15:44 12:50 81 94
andrewlake 15:45 13:32 85 98
cdb_100 15:47 12:07 76 88
RobR RobR 15:50 14:05 88 102
SBQuick 15:54 21:33 135 156
tapbarker 15:59 15:36 97 112
Encota 16:24 15:19 93 108
Jeremy S 16:40 16:35 99 115
phthisis 16:43 13:45 82 95
hopkinb hopkinb 16:44 15:55 95 110
Valance 16:52 12:50 76 88
LuckOfLucien 16:59 16:05 94 109
rrricharrrd 17:06 19:24 113 131
DanSolo 17:22 16:43 96 111
robinh 17:33 14:43 83 96
Achernar 17:35 12:31 71 82
PGooden 17:40 14:42 83 96
LJCN 17:52 11:15 62 72
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:02 16:29 91 105
Foozler 18:06 18:35 102 118
Vannyx 18:12 17:37 96 111
Jeremy Kenyon 18:13 17:36 96 111
Squallaby 18:17 14:22 78 90
Zander 18:20 20:14 110 127
FraserH 18:22 21:58 119 138
tds 18:26 16:03 87 101
GMcD 18:49 18:21 97 112
ramf 19:04 15:49 82 95
Colin2355 19:06 18:10 95 110
dec 19:08 20:26 106 123
John Arnold 19:13 16:52 87 101
KarenR 19:14 22:34 117 136
Nangle 19:15 26:33 137 159
pc8 19:15 13:31 70 81
Curarist Curarist 19:16 19:41 102 118
pterodactyl 19:22 17:24 89 103
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:46 17:22 87 101
tonym 19:59 18:46 93 108
valerian1967 20:01 11:52 59 68
brian.richards1 20:44 17:55 86 100
James P Special_bitter 21:18 22:21 104 120
goblin 22:06 18:40 84 97
david_ch 22:14 19:16 86 100
The Caffeine Kid 22:16 21:50 98 113
Rod B 22:17 29:42 133 154
rjhinde61 22:51 14:24 63 73
Corymbia Corymbia 23:12 24:57 107 124
JayEm 23:28 16:47 71 82
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:20 19:02 78 90
Brenk Brenk1 24:25 28:21 116 134
medodd 24:36 25:16 102 118
mjsaunders9 24:38 21:19 86 100
Coffell 25:03 46:23 185 215
chris661554 25:03 28:53 115 133
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 17:30 69 80
Crippens1 25:18 20:03 79 91
Deezzaa Deezzaa 25:59 23:13 89 103
Grumpole Grumpole 26:13 27:25 104 120
barracuda barracuda 26:28 25:36 96 111
Edprof 26:57 32:56 122 141
ulaca ulaca 26:57 22:49 84 97
Dr_Bob 27:02 21:27 79 91
Yatton50 27:34 31:24 113 131
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:34 18:27 66 76
Aldus 27:39 22:30 81 94
David Luke 28:00 22:27 80 93
td349 28:20 20:18 71 82
nekabue 28:23 35:53 126 146
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:29 56:33 198 230
Manveru 28:37 25:39 89 103
Menelaus 28:52 18:02 62 72
RogerC 29:21 22:20 76 88
Winchelt618 29:23 31:36 107 124
gbestanley 29:30 28:44 97 112
Mudge Mudge 31:03 40:28 130 151
piltdown man 31:52 41:09 129 150
tyrotim tyrotim 32:08 33:17 103 119
BertieVII 32:32 23:44 72 83
hectorslave 33:01 44:33 134 155
koro kororareka 33:03 26:18 79 91
NAPASAI napasai 33:58 26:49 78 90
Rookie 35:18 32:55 93 108
Birdingbob 35:49 25:37 71 82
intentional rounding 35:53 29:23 81 94
CoxBurglar coxburglar 36:34 37:00 101 117
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:19 29:37 79 91
MalcolmD 37:58 34:06 89 103
The Real Steve Snackman 38:06 27:13 71 82
clivejharlow 38:09 26:11 68 79
starstruck starstruck_au 38:09 23:50 62 72
baronrob 38:56 42:20 108 125
E Bradford E Bradford 39:12 47:17 120 139
HanS 39:33 38:40 97 112
hydrochoos hydrochoos 43:44 43:00 98 113
Steve Wood 43:53 40:05 91 105
j.stanton734 46:13 23:38 51 59
empty 46:22 39:10 84 97
MichaelE 50:14 40:01 79 91
MartinP MartinP1 50:39 40:00 78 90

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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