Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29206

Date 17 April 2025
Number 29206
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 112
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29206

* 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 07:44 131 116
Magoo 05:55 07:51 132 117
Nathan Panning 05:57 05:54 99 88
cmjhutton 06:06 06:25 105 93
lili 06:07 06:04 99 88
Jason 06:08 09:07 148 132
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 04:58 76 67
aphis99 aphis99 07:18 09:17 127 113
mistigris 07:19 11:06 151 134
samgdavies 08:11 11:07 135 120
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:46 08:45 99 88
Umpire 09:03 10:43 118 105
fshephe 09:12 11:08 121 108
asaldanha 09:28 10:37 112 100
richard 09:31 09:41 101 90
markdobell 09:57 10:28 105 93
chindit 10:40 14:58 140 125
Kinghedger 10:43 10:52 101 90
SimonAnthony 10:47 14:39 135 120
lickert 10:55 12:40 116 103
edwards.robert1 11:04 13:46 124 110
scrabbler 11:10 15:44 140 125
neilr neilr 11:11 12:49 114 101
keriothe_ keriothe 11:25 17:45 155 138
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:37 11:27 98 87
chriswords 11:39 15:22 131 116
Heyesey 11:44 08:01 68 60
miked1961 11:47 13:03 110 98
Morphosis 11:49 15:13 128 114
fuzz 11:50 10:19 87 77
andy 11:52 15:27 130 116
Sheapey Sheapey 11:57 09:46 81 72
tilbee 12:01 11:08 92 82
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:07 15:41 129 115
njnclarke 12:14 14:57 122 108
aphasic 12:34 13:29 107 95
Freemers 12:42 11:15 88 78
Groucho 13:16 17:37 132 117
Silva 13:16 17:20 130 116
Stavros Stavrolex 13:28 21:01 156 139
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:32 17:09 126 112
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:38 14:00 102 91
Carol 13:39 15:02 110 98
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 16:28 120 107
Eddddddd 13:40 15:40 114 101
Semillon 14:15 18:19 128 114
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 13:52 96 85
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:35 18:01 123 109
Tibthorpe 14:38 18:53 129 115
Pootle Pootle 14:49 16:44 112 100
franceslc11 15:01 13:40 91 81
Finzi 15:11 16:52 111 99
Looch 15:11 17:44 116 103
JezWoolfrey 15:21 25:55 168 150
gabrojak 15:24 21:35 140 125
TB22 15:26 10:41 69 61
DunPangolin 15:32 18:57 121 108
andrewlake 15:45 14:08 89 79
cdb_100 15:47 17:21 109 97
RobR RobR 15:50 25:36 161 143
tapbarker 15:59 17:59 112 100
CentralLine CentralLine 16:10 18:22 113 100
Encota 16:24 21:53 133 118
julian_w 16:28 08:45 53 47
phthisis 16:43 17:39 105 93
LuckOfLucien 16:59 17:29 102 91
ilan 17:04 20:50 122 108
DanSolo 17:22 25:21 145 129
Crossiant 17:26 15:47 90 80
robinh 17:33 23:20 132 117
Achernar 17:35 19:54 113 100
LJCN 17:52 22:20 125 111
Gallion Fish 17:53 14:44 82 73
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:02 19:14 106 94
KET 18:06 24:58 137 122
Foozler 18:06 20:25 112 100
daniel.faith 18:12 22:58 126 112
Squallaby 18:17 20:17 110 98
Zander 18:20 18:07 98 87
Craven 18:26 23:53 129 115
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:46 27:47 148 132
GMcD 18:49 24:07 128 114
Mike C 18:54 22:13 117 104
David Bourne 18:56 25:49 136 121
Nangle 19:15 15:55 82 73
pc8 19:15 14:49 76 67
uvofiz 19:37 25:48 131 116
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:46 33:15 168 150
tonym 19:59 27:27 137 122
george.garlick 20:41 29:08 140 125
stainl665 20:45 28:05 135 120
James P Special_bitter 21:18 26:42 125 111
goblin 22:06 24:08 109 97
david_ch 22:14 23:45 106 94
The Caffeine Kid 22:16 28:35 128 114
Rod B 22:17 26:20 118 105
gsriordan52 22:21 25:39 114 101
Fidelio 22:55 40:17 175 156
Corymbia Corymbia 23:12 27:28 118 105
Tudds 24:05 29:38 123 109
Jagsfan1971 24:14 23:55 98 87
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:20 27:11 111 99
Brenk Brenk1 24:25 40:00 163 145
medodd 24:36 31:16 127 113
mjsaunders9 24:38 21:24 86 76
chris661554 25:03 26:14 104 92
Crippens1 25:18 27:47 109 97
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:31 31:56 125 111
SlumdogEngineer 25:59 26:12 100 89
Grumpole Grumpole 26:13 30:31 116 103
raincloud 26:54 47:08 175 156
Edprof 26:57 37:34 139 124
Dr_Bob 27:02 32:16 119 106
Jamie Fox 27:19 27:35 100 89
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:34 41:33 150 133
Aldus 27:39 23:28 84 75
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:52 33:58 121 108
nekabue 28:23 35:16 124 110
Manveru 28:37 60:22 210 187
Menelaus 28:52 41:44 144 128
ofarrell 28:58 03:26 11 9
wimpoldo 29:16 32:35 111 99
gbestanley 29:30 27:03 91 81
richardCV22 30:10 26:01 86 76
alistair.boere 30:40 39:45 129 115
Mudge Mudge 31:03 48:56 157 140
piltdown man 31:52 46:36 146 130
symbenall2 32:14 33:45 104 92
BertieVII 32:32 27:23 84 75
koro kororareka 33:03 38:11 115 102
boltonwanderer 33:32 53:00 158 141
JoeyC 35:18 34:14 96 85
Shushannah 35:22 30:46 86 76
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:19 27:25 73 65
The Real Steve Snackman 38:06 40:03 105 93
starstruck starstruck_au 38:09 31:04 81 72
HanS 39:33 61:54 156 139
maryht 40:12 76:49 191 170
Steve Wood 43:53 39:06 89 79
j.stanton734 46:13 44:17 95 84
empty 46:22 67:41 145 129
MartinP MartinP1 50:39 43:28 85 75
paulmcl paulmcl 54:11 104:48 193 172

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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