Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29219

Date 02 May 2025
Number 29219
Day of week Friday
NITCH 120
Count of ref solvers 69
Ref solvers excluded with errors 15
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29219

* 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
cmjhutton 05:56 09:25 158 131
Magoo 06:02 05:26 90 75
lili 06:06 08:14 134 111
Jason 06:20 07:54 124 103
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 06:20 98 81
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 06:59 93 77
mistigris 07:28 15:47 211 175
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 11:16 132 110
Umpire 09:01 08:32 94 78
fshephe 09:05 13:17 146 121
richard 09:31 10:50 113 94
markdobell 09:54 11:33 116 96
Ciolf 10:09 12:45 125 104
KenD51 10:10 11:43 115 95
Kinghedger 10:44 14:08 131 109
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 14:50 137 114
lickert 10:51 14:10 130 108
chindit 10:54 16:55 155 129
scrabbler 11:13 13:45 122 101
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 15:20 133 110
drginacoco 11:33 02:28 21 17
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 19:55 169 140
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 13:43 116 96
chriswords 11:55 13:38 114 95
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 19:01 159 132
Freemers 12:22 14:05 113 94
aphasic 12:28 17:21 139 115
Secondbass 13:08 10:36 80 66
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 24:53 180 150
Ben Staveley 14:06 17:12 121 100
EricK 14:06 15:15 108 90
Semillon 14:20 11:24 79 65
Tibthorpe 14:35 14:59 102 85
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 23:32 160 133
Finzi 15:12 17:07 112 93
DunPangolin 15:19 16:36 108 90
franceslc11 15:23 21:55 142 118
tapbarker 15:46 21:49 138 115
cdb_100 15:50 70:59 448 373
andrewlake 15:55 21:05 132 110
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 14:24 89 74
phthisis 16:23 29:25 179 149
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 23:04 139 115
Encota 16:33 19:58 120 100
Jeremy S 16:52 17:11 101 84
ilan 16:53 17:41 104 86
DanSolo 17:38 24:38 139 115
whichcraft 17:39 13:18 75 62
Vannyx 17:56 22:23 124 103
Gallion Fish 17:57 26:17 146 121
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 30:22 168 140
LJCN 18:14 22:13 121 100
Zander 18:18 19:57 109 90
GMcD 18:23 19:15 104 86
Squallaby 18:26 19:58 108 90
daniel.faith 18:37 32:23 173 144
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:38 23:56 128 106
pc8 18:53 27:55 147 122
John Arnold 19:02 21:16 111 92
KarenR 19:27 27:33 141 117
brian.richards1 20:00 21:04 105 87
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 28:54 142 118
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 15:33 76 63
valerian1967 20:18 22:32 111 92
george.garlick 20:55 34:06 163 135
stainl665 21:11 25:40 121 100
tonym 21:26 28:22 132 110
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 24:17 112 93
goblin 21:57 27:35 125 104
JayEm 23:17 20:56 89 74
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 22:20 95 79
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 37:51 154 128
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 33:44 135 112
Coffell 24:57 22:16 89 74
6098mr 25:14 24:54 98 81
mjsaunders9 25:16 25:27 100 83
Brenk Brenk1 25:27 50:00 196 163
Aldus 26:03 21:40 83 69
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 24:57 95 79
Dr_Bob 26:53 36:24 135 112
Jamie Fox 27:01 41:05 152 126
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 39:06 143 119
Yatton50 27:42 35:38 128 106
Edprof 27:52 32:21 116 96
nekabue 28:15 47:56 169 140
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 41:33 146 121
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:25 39:31 139 115
Menelaus 28:35 36:53 129 107
gbestanley 28:47 31:20 108 90
Manveru 28:49 32:18 112 93
Winchelt618 29:05 24:05 82 68
Gussie 29:23 31:52 108 90
BertieVII 31:22 84:28 269 224
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 27:51 87 72
alexngbr 32:22 38:26 118 98
koro kororareka 33:17 47:21 142 118
JoeyC 33:50 33:21 98 81
Wanderlust 34:01 47:45 140 116
intentional rounding 35:11 25:53 73 60
Shushannah 35:16 60:54 172 143
Jambo20 36:22 39:33 108 90
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 34:58 93 77
MalcolmD 38:12 42:36 111 92
Dr Dolittle 38:46 39:06 100 83
HanS 38:48 38:59 100 83
Steve Wood 43:44 56:23 128 106
empty 45:50 50:11 109 90
MichaelE 46:46 70:28 150 125
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 70:01 138 115

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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