Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5160

Date 20 April 2025
Number 5160
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 154
Count of ref solvers 42
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5160

* 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 05:54 09:39 163 105
cmjhutton 05:56 07:28 125 81
Magoo 06:02 08:21 138 89
Jason 06:20 10:43 169 109
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 09:45 151 98
Aiberdeen Loon 08:12 11:38 141 91
Jif1603 08:22 08:48 105 68
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 13:25 158 102
donalhurley11 08:37 10:54 126 81
Umpire 09:01 14:20 158 102
fshephe 09:05 04:15 46 29
tunflog 09:07 08:33 93 60
Icarus 09:43 11:55 122 79
markdobell 09:54 12:03 121 78
DennisO 10:31 08:23 79 51
SimonAnthony 10:38 20:11 189 122
Kinghedger 10:44 19:06 177 114
lickert 10:51 19:03 175 113
chindit 10:54 27:25 251 162
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 21:36 194 125
scrabbler 11:13 21:47 194 125
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 20:58 182 118
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 23:57 207 134
Heyesey 11:37 18:15 157 101
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 21:19 181 117
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 21:39 181 117
MJLD 12:08 04:37 38 24
Brian Girling 12:10 07:52 64 41
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 17:51 145 94
Freemers 12:22 18:32 149 96
Alan Abrams 12:54 13:36 105 68
Secondbass 13:08 22:10 168 109
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 20:27 153 99
Adelaider 13:39 22:34 165 107
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 26:44 193 125
Ben Staveley 14:06 22:23 158 102
Semillon 14:20 21:54 152 98
Carol 14:33 19:03 130 84
Tibthorpe 14:35 22:36 154 100
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 20:59 143 92
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:42 21:33 146 94
Finzi 15:12 17:27 114 74
andrewlake 15:55 26:38 167 108
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 24:49 154 100
McBeakLives 16:17 26:54 165 107
phthisis 16:23 21:36 131 85
Encota 16:33 21:34 130 84
Valance 16:43 21:36 129 83
Crossiant 17:25 23:42 136 88
earlylight 17:35 20:32 116 75
DanSolo 17:38 15:15 86 55
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 22:27 124 80
Zander 18:18 27:33 150 97
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:38 26:10 140 90
Mike C 19:02 22:38 118 76
Aloysius 19:15 24:31 127 82
Curarist Curarist 19:32 20:36 105 68
uvofiz 19:44 28:08 142 92
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:26 54:16 253 164
squark 21:47 23:02 105 68
steve.laverock 23:51 24:59 104 67
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 27:57 107 69
baronrob 40:03 28:08 70 45
hydrochoos hydrochoos 44:22 54:00 121 78

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