Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29194

Date 03 April 2025
Number 29194
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 128
Count of ref solvers 53
Ref solvers excluded with errors 63
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29194

* 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 08:11 138 107
Jason 06:08 06:18 102 79
Diskus 06:11 08:18 134 104
mistigris 07:19 08:44 119 92
samgdavies 08:11 08:58 109 85
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:46 10:10 115 89
fshephe 09:12 10:51 117 91
glheard glh 09:53 16:34 167 130
KenD51 10:23 08:34 82 64
Kinghedger 10:43 16:17 151 117
SimonAnthony 10:47 21:55 203 158
scrabbler 11:10 13:29 120 93
keriothe_ keriothe 11:25 16:27 144 112
chriswords 11:39 22:55 196 153
Sheapey Sheapey 11:57 13:07 109 85
Golvellius 12:07 15:44 129 100
Secondbass 13:13 14:15 107 83
grape 13:30 23:16 172 134
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:32 18:05 133 103
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:38 14:25 105 82
alexh 13:55 19:27 139 108
robertL 13:59 18:14 130 101
Rinteff Rinteff 14:16 18:01 126 98
EricK 14:17 16:54 118 92
drginacoco 14:28 01:46 12 9
Ben Staveley 14:32 18:44 128 100
Tibthorpe 14:38 22:20 152 118
Pootle Pootle 14:49 25:39 173 135
Looch 15:11 18:01 118 92
Finzi 15:11 18:59 125 97
andrewlake 15:45 22:21 141 110
cdb_100 15:47 24:26 154 120
andrewfeist96 16:00 43:27 271 211
phthisis 16:43 17:28 104 81
earlylight 17:23 21:29 123 96
robinh 17:33 24:54 141 110
PGooden 17:40 21:35 122 95
Gallion Fish 17:53 28:40 160 125
Jeremy Kenyon 18:13 20:16 111 86
Squallaby 18:17 16:37 90 70
ramf 19:04 28:59 152 118
Colin2355 19:06 27:37 144 112
KarenR 19:14 31:42 164 128
pc8 19:15 23:26 121 94
Curarist Curarist 19:16 23:38 122 95
valerian1967 20:01 22:27 112 87
James P Special_bitter 21:18 33:49 158 123
goblin 22:06 30:33 138 107
The Caffeine Kid 22:16 24:42 110 85
Corymbia Corymbia 23:12 25:28 109 85
JayEm 23:28 28:16 120 93
Brenk Brenk1 24:25 40:00 163 127
medodd 24:36 39:09 159 124
Coffell 25:03 43:10 172 134
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:31 34:50 136 106
Deezzaa Deezzaa 25:59 32:21 124 96
barracuda barracuda 26:28 32:44 123 96
ChrisBrea 26:30 33:12 125 97
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 27:02 44:48 165 128
Yatton50 27:34 44:52 162 126
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:52 32:35 116 90
nekabue 28:23 30:30 107 83
Manveru 28:37 32:39 114 89
wimpoldo 29:16 34:36 118 92
RogerC 29:21 28:30 97 75
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:31 36:17 115 89
Jeeves 31:35 54:18 171 133
boltonwanderer 33:32 55:00 164 128
Rookie 35:18 46:03 130 101
intentional rounding 35:53 45:07 125 97
The Real Steve Snackman 38:06 36:52 96 75
clivejharlow 38:09 50:47 133 103
E Bradford E Bradford 39:12 45:00 114 89
kjbr 51:51 89:10 171 133

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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