Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29209

Date 21 April 2025
Number 29209
Day of week Monday
NITCH 75
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29209

* 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 03:58 67 89
Nathan Panning 05:57 03:40 61 81
lili 06:07 03:02 49 65
Jason 06:08 04:41 76 101
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 04:45 73 97
hilarym 06:51 07:04 103 137
aphis99 aphis99 07:18 07:20 100 133
mistigris 07:19 04:12 57 76
Umpire 09:03 07:25 81 108
fshephe 09:12 04:19 46 61
glheard glh 09:53 08:07 82 109
markdobell 09:57 08:06 81 108
Ciolf 10:31 10:23 98 130
chindit 10:40 07:18 68 90
Kinghedger 10:43 07:43 72 96
SimonAnthony 10:47 06:47 62 82
Deane Short Deane Short 10:49 09:48 90 120
edwards.robert1 11:04 14:52 134 178
scrabbler 11:10 09:54 88 117
neilr neilr 11:11 12:13 109 145
keriothe_ keriothe 11:25 06:08 53 70
David Crooks dcrooks 11:33 08:16 71 94
chriswords 11:39 14:47 126 168
fuzz 11:50 13:45 116 154
Sheapey Sheapey 11:57 11:35 96 128
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:00 07:45 64 85
tilbee 12:01 10:13 85 113
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:07 07:24 61 81
aphasic 12:34 11:34 92 122
John Walsh 12:39 12:37 99 132
Freemers 12:42 08:57 70 93
canismiser 13:01 13:07 100 133
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 13:08 15:02 114 152
JimboFS 13:11 12:37 95 126
Secondbass 13:13 13:08 99 132
Paul Bacon 13:14 12:31 94 125
Silva 13:16 09:46 73 97
Groucho 13:16 09:39 72 96
Stavros Stavrolex 13:28 12:21 91 121
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:32 12:31 92 122
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 09:23 68 90
Eddddddd 13:40 13:35 99 132
alexh 13:55 14:07 101 134
Peponi13 14:11 11:07 78 104
Semillon 14:15 13:53 97 129
EricK 14:17 11:52 83 110
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 09:30 66 88
drginacoco 14:28 01:41 11 14
MK76 14:31 10:30 72 96
Ben Staveley 14:32 13:19 91 121
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:35 12:48 87 116
Tibthorpe 14:38 12:04 82 109
Pootle Pootle 14:49 10:33 71 94
Riche Riche 14:58 10:11 68 90
franceslc11 15:01 11:33 76 101
BlackburnRover 15:10 12:23 81 108
Finzi 15:11 14:31 95 126
gabrojak 15:24 13:41 88 117
DunPangolin 15:32 10:47 69 92
chriswestontour Chris West 15:36 10:18 66 88
cdb_100 15:47 13:25 85 113
CentralLine CentralLine 16:10 06:48 42 56
Encota 16:24 12:17 74 98
julian_w 16:28 10:58 66 88
McBeakLives 16:40 07:53 47 62
Jeremy S 16:40 17:52 107 142
phthisis 16:43 17:10 102 136
Valance 16:52 15:49 93 124
ajcauk1 17:09 14:20 83 110
DanSolo 17:22 17:15 99 132
Crossiant 17:26 10:21 59 78
Achernar 17:35 16:40 94 125
PGooden 17:40 12:29 70 93
Gallion Fish 17:53 22:10 123 164
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:02 15:28 85 113
Foozler 18:06 19:22 106 141
daniel.faith 18:12 17:13 94 125
Jeremy Kenyon 18:13 13:30 74 98
Squallaby 18:17 09:48 53 70
Zander 18:20 10:37 57 76
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:46 12:24 66 88
GMcD 18:49 12:41 67 89
Mike C 18:54 13:18 70 93
David Bourne 18:56 12:50 67 89
ramf 19:04 16:12 84 112
Colin2355 19:06 16:16 85 113
pc8 19:15 20:14 105 140
uvofiz 19:37 15:59 81 108
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:46 18:44 94 125
tonym 19:59 18:19 91 121
Waterloo 20:40 13:36 65 86
george.garlick 20:41 12:11 58 77
James P Special_bitter 21:18 12:28 58 77
dr.shred 21:33 16:39 77 102
DianeRS 22:02 27:49 126 168
goblin 22:06 15:24 69 92
david_ch 22:14 14:50 66 88
Rod B 22:17 16:20 73 97
gsriordan52 22:21 12:09 54 72
rjhinde61 22:51 17:32 76 101
Corymbia Corymbia 23:12 19:29 83 110
JayEm 23:28 14:29 61 81
Tudds 24:05 18:58 78 104
Jagsfan1971 24:14 22:31 92 122
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:20 17:28 71 94
6098mr 24:43 21:04 85 113
Coffell 25:03 23:00 91 121
chris661554 25:03 25:07 100 133
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:08 23:03 91 121
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 19:44 78 104
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:31 16:35 64 85
Deezzaa Deezzaa 25:59 22:21 86 114
Edprof 26:57 27:19 101 134
ulaca ulaca 26:57 20:06 74 98
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 27:02 13:21 49 65
Jamie Fox 27:19 18:48 68 90
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:34 15:51 57 76
Yatton50 27:34 21:49 79 105
Aldus 27:39 19:42 71 94
gbestanley 29:30 22:36 76 101
richardCV22 30:10 25:25 84 112
Gussie 31:26 18:49 59 78
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:31 42:24 134 178
koro kororareka 33:03 23:45 71 94
boltonwanderer 33:32 26:00 77 102
kapietro kapietro 34:52 34:58 100 133
JoeyC 35:18 20:58 59 78
The Real Steve Snackman 38:06 27:24 71 94
starstruck starstruck_au 38:09 26:13 68 90
maryht 40:12 27:24 68 90
j.stanton734 46:13 21:45 47 62
MichaelE 50:14 24:42 49 65

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back