Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29213

Date 25 April 2025
Number 29213
Day of week Friday
NITCH 96
Count of ref solvers 67
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29213

* 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 05:25 92 95
Magoo 05:55 05:46 97 101
lili 06:07 08:28 138 143
Jason 06:08 05:18 86 89
verlaine Verlaine 06:29 06:51 105 109
aphis99 aphis99 07:18 07:44 105 109
mistigris 07:19 06:36 90 93
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:46 07:19 83 86
Umpire 09:03 07:44 85 88
asaldanha 09:28 17:08 180 187
richard 09:31 17:35 184 191
AlanS 09:38 08:41 90 93
markdobell 09:57 08:11 82 85
KenD51 10:23 11:45 113 117
Ciolf 10:31 06:49 64 66
chindit 10:40 08:27 79 82
Kinghedger 10:43 09:24 87 90
lickert 10:55 12:11 111 115
edwards.robert1 11:04 10:33 95 98
scrabbler 11:10 11:36 103 107
neilr neilr 11:11 10:46 96 100
keriothe_ keriothe 11:25 11:25 100 104
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:28 11:58 104 108
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:32 13:14 114 118
chriswords 11:39 11:34 99 103
Heyesey 11:44 09:53 84 87
miked1961 11:47 12:54 109 113
Morphosis 11:49 11:33 97 101
fuzz 11:50 13:10 111 115
john.brassey 11:55 12:44 106 110
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:00 10:05 84 87
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:07 12:47 105 109
njnclarke 12:14 14:16 116 120
aphasic 12:34 13:13 105 109
John Walsh 12:39 13:56 110 114
Freemers 12:42 13:49 108 112
d.middleton 12:50 17:35 137 142
canismiser 13:01 15:58 122 127
JimboFS 13:11 11:01 83 86
Secondbass 13:13 13:04 98 102
Silva 13:16 15:29 116 120
Groucho 13:16 13:39 102 106
Stavros Stavrolex 13:28 09:42 72 75
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:32 15:37 115 119
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:38 22:22 164 170
LouWeed LouWeed 13:40 16:20 119 123
Semillon 14:15 18:10 127 132
EricK 14:17 17:01 119 123
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:21 18:40 130 135
Adelaider 14:25 15:22 106 110
drginacoco 14:28 02:38 18 18
Ben Staveley 14:32 12:25 85 88
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:35 13:42 93 96
Tibthorpe 14:38 09:43 66 68
Pootle Pootle 14:49 14:50 100 104
franceslc11 15:01 19:32 130 135
Finzi 15:11 13:49 90 93
Looch 15:11 16:54 111 115
JezWoolfrey 15:21 19:54 129 134
TB22 15:26 12:12 79 82
andrewlake 15:45 15:26 97 101
cdb_100 15:47 12:30 79 82
RobR RobR 15:50 21:16 134 139
tapbarker 15:59 14:11 88 91
CentralLine CentralLine 16:10 11:30 71 73
Encota 16:24 18:09 110 114
julian_w 16:28 18:56 114 118
Jeremy S 16:40 19:58 119 123
McBeakLives 16:40 19:07 114 118
phthisis 16:43 19:02 113 117
hopkinb hopkinb 16:44 19:41 117 121
LuckOfLucien 16:59 14:03 82 85
ajcauk1 17:09 20:33 119 123
DanSolo 17:22 13:02 75 78
robinh 17:33 20:54 119 123
PGooden 17:40 17:32 99 103
LJCN 17:52 19:11 107 111
Gallion Fish 17:53 16:39 93 96
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:02 24:32 136 141
whichcraft 18:05 11:46 65 67
KET 18:06 21:04 116 120
daniel.faith 18:12 22:22 122 127
Squallaby 18:17 17:53 97 101
Zander 18:20 17:19 94 97
Craven 18:26 15:59 86 89
Pxspxs 18:32 14:50 80 83
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:46 25:30 135 140
MrChumley MrChumley 18:47 19:17 102 106
GMcD 18:49 21:01 111 115
ramf 19:04 17:51 93 96
Colin2355 19:06 23:40 123 128
KarenR 19:14 24:11 125 130
Nangle 19:15 23:02 119 123
pc8 19:15 17:56 93 96
Curarist Curarist 19:16 14:13 73 76
pterodactyl 19:22 19:21 99 103
uvofiz 19:37 26:50 136 141
Zabadak3 Zabadak 19:46 14:14 72 75
tonym 19:59 25:08 125 130
valerian1967 20:01 16:11 80 83
Waterloo 20:40 22:55 110 114
george.garlick 20:41 20:49 100 104
Kalakuta72 20:42 16:49 81 84
stainl665 20:45 21:13 102 106
UisceTe 20:52 24:46 118 122
Hamish.S 21:09 18:11 85 88
James P Special_bitter 21:18 22:47 106 110
goblin 22:06 23:03 104 108
Rod B 22:17 21:21 95 98
gsriordan52 22:21 24:09 108 112
Corymbia Corymbia 23:12 22:04 95 98
JayEm 23:28 21:45 92 95
Tudds 24:05 28:29 118 122
Jagsfan1971 24:14 16:58 70 72
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:20 31:47 130 135
Brenk Brenk1 24:25 41:35 170 177
medodd 24:36 28:17 114 118
mjsaunders9 24:38 17:41 71 73
Coffell 25:03 22:30 89 92
1234 25:03 25:41 102 106
chris661554 25:03 29:30 117 121
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:08 28:16 112 116
Crippens1 25:18 25:42 101 105
Grumpole Grumpole 26:13 29:53 113 117
mich_punk 26:32 21:38 81 84
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 27:02 45:01 166 172
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 27:02 45:01 166 172
Dr_Bob 27:02 25:28 94 97
Jamie Fox 27:19 27:57 102 106
nekabue 28:23 30:12 106 110
Manveru 28:37 30:30 106 110
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 28:48 24:33 85 88
alistair.boere 30:40 44:37 145 151
joss henry 31:04 36:29 117 121
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:31 54:13 172 179
alexngbr 33:12 38:17 115 119
boltonwanderer 33:32 52:00 155 161
kapietro kapietro 34:52 39:44 113 117
Shushannah 35:22 33:51 95 98
Wanderlust 36:12 30:20 83 86
CoxBurglar coxburglar 36:34 35:02 95 98
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:19 31:28 84 87
The Real Steve Snackman 38:06 28:14 74 77
starstruck starstruck_au 38:09 54:47 143 148
HanS 39:33 37:49 95 98
Steve Wood 43:53 36:32 83 86
MartinP MartinP1 50:39 44:46 88 91
kjbr 51:51 70:27 135 140

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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