Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29217

Date 30 April 2025
Number 29217
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 70
Count of ref solvers 54
Ref solvers excluded with errors 9
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29217

* 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
Nathan Panning 05:52 05:15 89 127
Paul Gilbert 05:54 03:45 63 90
cmjhutton 05:56 03:02 51 72
Magoo 06:02 04:32 75 107
lili 06:06 03:23 55 78
Jason 06:20 05:11 81 115
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 03:58 61 87
hilarym 06:48 05:47 85 121
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 05:24 72 102
mistigris 07:28 05:05 68 97
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 05:58 70 100
Umpire 09:01 06:13 68 97
fshephe 09:05 11:13 123 175
asaldanha 09:27 06:13 65 92
richard 09:31 07:19 76 108
markdobell 09:54 09:11 92 131
Ciolf 10:09 05:55 58 82
KenD51 10:10 07:45 76 108
SimonAnthony 10:38 08:51 83 118
Kinghedger 10:44 09:12 85 121
lickert 10:51 10:13 94 134
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 08:46 78 111
edwards.robert1 11:11 10:56 97 138
neilr neilr 11:12 14:10 126 180
scrabbler 11:13 10:16 91 130
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 09:55 86 122
Morphosis 11:31 10:56 94 134
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 11:53 103 147
drginacoco 11:33 01:45 15 21
David Crooks dcrooks 11:36 10:00 86 122
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 10:17 87 124
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 05:26 46 65
fuzz 11:53 11:40 98 140
miked1961 11:53 10:44 90 128
njnclarke 11:54 14:43 123 175
chriswords 11:55 13:37 114 162
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 04:59 41 58
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 09:20 76 108
Freemers 12:22 08:55 72 102
John Walsh 12:38 14:34 115 164
Silva 12:50 12:39 98 140
JimboFS 12:54 12:50 99 141
d.middleton 12:57 10:15 79 112
Groucho 13:02 10:12 78 111
Paul Bacon 13:03 11:51 90 128
Secondbass 13:08 17:00 129 184
m28ale 13:09 14:35 110 157
Eddddddd 13:32 11:34 85 121
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:39 08:35 62 88
alexh 13:42 12:35 91 130
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 08:59 65 92
Ben Staveley 14:06 16:36 117 167
EricK 14:06 11:10 79 112
grape 14:07 11:52 84 120
zinzan 14:15 14:01 98 140
robertL 14:20 10:18 71 101
Semillon 14:20 08:51 61 87
Pootle Pootle 14:24 06:41 46 65
Tibthorpe 14:35 12:15 84 120
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:42 16:00 108 154
MK76 14:48 16:45 113 161
BlackburnRover 15:08 14:53 98 140
Finzi 15:12 14:10 93 132
Looch 15:15 10:58 71 101
JezWoolfrey 15:16 13:14 86 122
DunPangolin 15:19 13:18 86 122
gabrojak 15:31 12:20 79 112
tapbarker 15:46 09:10 58 82
cdb_100 15:50 06:47 42 60
andrewlake 15:55 14:00 87 124
RobR RobR 15:57 15:00 94 134
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 10:34 65 92
nmsellen 16:13 09:59 61 87
McBeakLives 16:17 10:49 66 94
LuckOfLucien 16:19 12:06 74 105
phthisis 16:23 12:07 73 104
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 12:52 78 111
Valance 16:43 10:52 65 92
ilan 16:53 15:56 94 134
rrricharrrd 17:07 11:52 69 98
DanSolo 17:38 14:04 79 112
whichcraft 17:39 11:17 63 90
KET 17:50 11:49 66 94
PGooden 17:52 15:54 88 125
Pxspxs 17:55 10:58 61 87
Vannyx 17:56 09:38 53 75
Gallion Fish 17:57 18:53 105 150
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 12:59 71 101
LJCN 18:14 13:06 71 101
Zander 18:18 16:49 91 130
GMcD 18:23 13:41 74 105
Craven 18:26 14:48 80 114
Squallaby 18:26 10:24 56 80
pterodactyl 18:36 18:36 100 142
daniel.faith 18:37 15:37 83 118
ramf 18:50 11:28 60 85
pc8 18:53 21:46 115 164
John Arnold 19:02 26:59 141 201
Mike C 19:02 11:55 62 88
dec 19:24 19:21 99 141
KarenR 19:27 13:16 68 97
Curarist Curarist 19:32 17:24 89 127
uvofiz 19:44 16:59 86 122
brian.richards1 20:00 15:01 75 107
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 23:57 118 168
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 15:30 76 108
valerian1967 20:18 12:29 61 87
Waterloo 20:39 19:56 96 137
UisceTe 20:47 17:36 84 120
dr.shred 20:51 12:49 61 87
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:55 14:29 69 98
george.garlick 20:55 22:24 107 152
tonym 21:26 21:25 99 141
Dvynys dvynys 21:31 19:04 88 125
gsriordan52 21:47 18:40 85 121
goblin 21:57 19:37 89 127
Rod B 22:06 13:56 63 90
James P Special_bitter 22:10 08:54 40 57
Nigel1953 23:14 03:48 16 22
JayEm 23:17 17:56 77 110
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 14:42 62 88
Tudds 24:04 22:14 92 131
medodd 24:05 31:12 129 184
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 20:44 83 118
Coffell 24:57 20:20 81 115
Brian McNamar 25:10 17:29 69 98
mjsaunders9 25:16 13:09 52 74
Brenk Brenk1 25:27 26:35 104 148
Aldus 26:03 16:19 62 88
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 21:39 83 118
ulaca ulaca 26:11 20:41 78 111
En Cee 26:12 25:45 98 140
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 19:08 70 100
Edprof 27:52 33:47 121 172
nekabue 28:15 19:05 67 95
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 12:49 45 64
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:25 29:13 102 145
Menelaus 28:35 24:12 84 120
gbestanley 28:47 21:12 73 104
Manveru 28:49 16:04 55 78
wimpoldo 29:26 34:44 118 168
alistair.boere 31:18 19:40 62 88
BertieVII 31:22 33:17 106 151
tyrotim tyrotim 31:27 40:53 129 184
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 21:32 67 95
piltdown man 31:51 19:22 60 85
alexngbr 32:22 15:44 48 68
symbenall2 32:57 28:22 86 122
koro kororareka 33:17 21:55 65 92
boltonwanderer 33:27 26:00 77 110
Wanderlust 34:01 49:15 144 205
Maggot 34:23 29:47 86 122
Lloyd 34:41 34:08 98 140
Shushannah 35:16 33:24 94 134
Rookie 36:02 30:53 85 121
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 23:00 63 90
Birdingbob 36:28 27:04 74 105
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 40:42 109 155
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 21:44 57 81
E Bradford E Bradford 37:52 36:10 95 135
Jax74 37:58 55:18 145 207
MalcolmD 38:12 37:56 99 141
HanS 38:48 29:44 76 108
Steve Wood 43:44 37:00 84 120
empty 45:50 21:45 47 67
kjbr 51:45 42:01 81 115
NJP1 58:29 40:02 68 97

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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