Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29218

Date 01 May 2025
Number 29218
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 116
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29218

* 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 07:28 127 109
cmjhutton 05:56 05:45 96 82
Magoo 06:02 09:32 158 136
lili 06:06 08:58 146 125
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 07:56 123 106
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 09:49 131 112
mistigris 07:28 11:30 154 132
Alexis Johansen 07:29 09:55 132 113
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 12:30 147 126
asaldanha 09:27 11:13 118 101
richard 09:31 08:24 88 75
AlanS 09:35 11:23 118 101
markdobell 09:54 09:26 95 81
Ciolf 10:09 09:37 94 81
KenD51 10:10 21:50 214 184
SimonAnthony 10:38 17:26 163 140
Kinghedger 10:44 11:41 108 93
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 14:58 138 118
lickert 10:51 14:31 133 114
chindit 10:54 12:52 118 101
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 10:45 96 82
edwards.robert1 11:11 11:45 105 90
neilr neilr 11:12 14:32 129 111
scrabbler 11:13 14:47 131 112
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 13:32 117 100
Morphosis 11:31 16:40 144 124
drginacoco 11:33 01:45 15 12
Heyesey 11:37 12:44 109 93
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 14:08 120 103
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 17:40 150 129
fuzz 11:53 10:21 87 75
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 15:22 128 110
tilbee 12:08 16:45 138 118
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 16:40 135 116
Freemers 12:22 10:14 82 70
aphasic 12:28 14:30 116 100
JimboFS 12:54 25:47 199 171
Groucho 13:02 20:29 157 135
Secondbass 13:08 19:47 150 129
m28ale 13:09 15:57 121 104
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:17 16:12 121 104
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 17:37 131 112
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:39 14:12 104 89
Adelaider 13:39 21:58 160 137
alexh 13:42 16:58 123 106
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 18:29 134 115
benbush 14:04 15:29 110 94
Ben Staveley 14:06 16:22 116 100
EricK 14:06 16:42 118 101
Semillon 14:20 18:06 126 108
robertL 14:20 12:08 84 72
Tibthorpe 14:35 17:33 120 103
Finzi 15:12 17:17 113 97
Looch 15:15 20:42 135 116
franceslc11 15:23 14:54 96 82
tapbarker 15:46 27:03 171 147
andrewlake 15:55 17:12 108 93
RobR RobR 15:57 17:37 110 94
McBeakLives 16:17 22:00 135 116
LuckOfLucien 16:19 25:14 154 132
phthisis 16:23 18:21 112 96
Encota 16:33 22:58 138 118
Jeremy S 16:52 17:00 100 86
rrricharrrd 17:07 25:01 146 125
earlylight 17:35 15:16 86 74
DanSolo 17:38 18:04 102 87
whichcraft 17:39 16:35 93 80
PGooden 17:52 25:57 145 125
Pxspxs 17:55 16:53 94 81
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 15:27 85 73
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 18:48 103 88
Zander 18:18 24:30 133 114
GMcD 18:23 34:01 185 159
Craven 18:26 20:03 108 93
Squallaby 18:26 34:42 188 162
pterodactyl 18:36 34:38 186 160
daniel.faith 18:37 21:46 116 100
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:38 21:13 113 97
ramf 18:50 18:46 99 85
pc8 18:53 17:45 93 80
Astonvilla.1 19:14 28:29 148 127
Curarist Curarist 19:32 34:19 175 150
Astonvilla1 19:38 28:29 145 125
uvofiz 19:44 29:44 150 129
brian.richards1 20:00 31:37 158 136
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 28:07 138 118
valerian1967 20:18 20:21 100 86
Rosey6 20:40 44:35 215 185
dr.shred 20:51 35:57 172 148
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:55 22:05 105 90
Hamish.S 21:08 30:26 144 124
stainl665 21:11 22:37 106 91
tonym 21:26 29:17 136 117
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 24:04 111 95
gsriordan52 21:47 28:36 131 112
goblin 21:57 24:38 112 96
Rod B 22:06 22:41 102 87
James P Special_bitter 22:10 27:33 124 106
JayEm 23:17 23:01 98 84
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 27:45 118 101
steve.laverock 23:51 31:08 130 112
Tudds 24:04 29:50 123 106
medodd 24:05 33:39 139 119
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 33:47 138 118
crosswordian 24:26 27:02 110 94
Crippens1 24:53 34:00 136 117
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 34:25 138 118
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 39:02 155 133
Aldus 26:03 19:50 76 65
ulaca ulaca 26:11 61:26 234 201
En Cee 26:12 31:10 118 101
Dr_Bob 26:53 33:21 124 106
Jamie Fox 27:01 22:11 82 70
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 42:57 158 136
nekabue 28:15 37:21 132 113
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 29:24 103 88
f4rch 28:30 32:30 114 98
Menelaus 28:35 38:31 134 115
gbestanley 28:47 33:34 116 100
Manveru 28:49 37:04 128 110
Gussie 29:23 28:45 97 83
richardCV22 30:13 35:59 119 102
dosbarth 31:18 35:14 112 96
alistair.boere 31:18 29:27 94 81
koro kororareka 33:17 41:01 123 106
Rookie 36:02 44:07 122 105
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 47:31 130 112
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 36:30 97 83
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 64:34 172 148
E Bradford E Bradford 37:52 59:15 156 134
NAPASAI napasai 38:48 34:32 89 76
HanS 38:48 42:26 109 93
maryht 40:15 31:29 78 67
Aidleys 43:28 56:59 131 112
empty 45:50 63:04 137 118
MichaelE 46:46 77:29 165 142
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 87:01 172 148

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