Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29222

Date 06 May 2025
Number 29222
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 86
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 11
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29222

* 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 05:47 98 113
cmjhutton 05:56 05:04 85 98
Magoo 06:02 04:21 72 83
lili 06:06 03:47 62 72
Diskus 06:14 04:55 78 90
Jason 06:20 05:58 94 109
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 05:19 82 95
hilarym 06:48 06:46 99 115
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 08:48 118 137
mistigris 07:28 05:24 72 83
Alexis Johansen 07:29 06:39 88 102
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 09:00 106 123
Umpire 09:01 11:08 123 143
fshephe 09:05 04:28 49 56
asaldanha 09:27 05:36 59 68
richard 09:31 07:43 81 94
AlanS 09:35 08:12 85 98
markdobell 09:54 09:43 98 113
Ciolf 10:09 08:01 78 90
KenD51 10:10 12:40 124 144
tiggis 10:16 11:26 111 129
SimonAnthony 10:38 13:42 128 148
Kinghedger 10:44 11:45 109 126
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 09:25 87 101
lickert 10:51 11:32 106 123
chindit 10:54 11:23 104 120
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 11:08 100 116
edwards.robert1 11:11 10:59 98 113
neilr neilr 11:12 10:29 93 108
scrabbler 11:13 09:39 86 100
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 10:28 91 105
Morphosis 11:31 10:09 88 102
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 12:13 105 122
drginacoco 11:33 02:07 18 20
David Crooks dcrooks 11:36 14:32 125 145
Heyesey 11:37 14:17 122 141
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 14:17 121 140
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 15:56 135 156
miked1961 11:53 11:28 96 111
fuzz 11:53 10:48 90 104
njnclarke 11:54 10:45 90 104
chriswords 11:55 11:39 97 112
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 12:45 106 123
tilbee 12:08 16:11 133 154
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 09:22 76 88
Freemers 12:22 13:12 106 123
Silva 12:50 11:10 87 101
JimboFS 12:54 12:04 93 108
Groucho 13:02 11:27 87 101
Paul Bacon 13:03 13:40 104 120
Secondbass 13:08 09:57 75 87
m28ale 13:09 18:20 139 161
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 10:59 82 95
Eddddddd 13:32 15:36 115 133
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:39 13:50 101 117
Adelaider 13:39 14:25 105 122
alexh 13:42 14:54 108 125
benbush 14:04 15:03 106 123
Peponi13 14:04 09:16 65 75
EricK 14:06 08:34 60 69
grape 14:07 13:12 93 108
robertL 14:20 13:04 91 105
Pootle Pootle 14:24 14:01 97 112
Rinteff Rinteff 14:26 12:02 83 96
Tibthorpe 14:35 13:46 94 109
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:42 12:57 88 102
myles 14:57 12:37 84 97
Finzi 15:12 13:12 86 100
Looch 15:15 12:09 79 91
JezWoolfrey 15:16 21:55 143 166
franceslc11 15:23 09:51 64 74
cdb_100 15:50 14:16 90 104
andrewlake 15:55 12:14 76 88
RobR RobR 15:57 11:44 73 84
cmcnsmith 16:03 18:55 117 136
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 14:12 88 102
doublecross anguswalker 16:17 12:11 74 86
McBeakLives 16:17 19:12 117 136
LuckOfLucien 16:19 14:54 91 105
phthisis 16:23 11:55 72 83
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 15:37 94 109
Encota 16:33 13:01 78 90
ajcauk1 17:05 14:58 87 101
rrricharrrd 17:07 09:34 55 63
Achernar 17:18 20:23 117 136
whichcraft 17:39 12:27 70 81
KET 17:50 18:29 103 119
thewanderingeditor 17:56 13:07 73 84
Gallion Fish 17:57 18:54 105 122
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 25:37 141 163
Foozler 18:08 19:15 106 123
LJCN 18:14 15:28 84 97
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 16:02 87 101
Craven 18:26 18:30 100 116
FraserH 18:30 12:53 69 80
pterodactyl 18:36 19:36 105 122
daniel.faith 18:37 15:43 84 97
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:38 19:53 106 123
pc8 18:53 16:33 87 101
John Arnold 19:02 29:39 155 180
Colin2355 19:13 17:52 92 106
KarenR 19:27 19:35 100 116
Curarist Curarist 19:32 12:08 62 72
uvofiz 19:44 16:51 85 98
DamienKnapma 19:51 20:18 102 118
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 17:11 84 97
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 25:25 125 145
valerian1967 20:18 16:42 82 95
dr.shred 20:51 25:53 124 144
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:55 20:45 99 115
Hamish.S 21:08 18:44 88 102
tonym 21:26 18:50 87 101
Dvynys dvynys 21:31 18:47 87 101
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 17:55 82 95
gsriordan52 21:47 21:11 97 112
goblin 21:57 24:22 111 129
Rod B 22:06 17:28 79 91
david_ch 22:06 17:30 79 91
James P Special_bitter 22:10 20:25 92 106
rjhinde61 22:26 14:41 65 75
Nigel1953 23:14 03:55 16 18
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 26:17 112 130
Tudds 24:04 19:28 80 93
medodd 24:05 22:17 92 106
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 21:33 88 102
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 24:15 98 113
Crippens1 24:53 26:11 105 122
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 20:40 82 95
Coffell 24:57 31:04 124 144
mjsaunders9 25:16 21:11 83 96
Brenk Brenk1 25:27 25:55 101 117
chris661554 26:00 20:08 77 89
Aldus 26:03 21:03 80 93
ratterz 26:05 19:07 73 84
En Cee 26:12 18:10 69 80
Dr_Bob 26:53 20:57 77 89
Jamie Fox 27:01 16:44 61 70
barracuda barracuda 27:07 22:50 84 97
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:33 25:00 90 104
nekabue 28:15 35:00 123 143
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:25 25:50 90 104
Menelaus 28:35 21:06 73 84
gbestanley 28:47 28:40 99 115
Manveru 28:49 25:42 89 103
Winchelt618 29:05 28:54 99 115
RogerC 29:26 22:54 77 89
simjt simjt 29:43 29:44 100 116
richardCV22 30:13 22:58 76 88
dosbarth 31:18 28:04 89 103
alistair.boere 31:18 29:11 93 108
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 38:39 121 140
koro kororareka 33:17 30:12 90 104
boltonwanderer 33:27 37:00 110 127
JoeyC 33:50 13:07 38 44
Cryptique 34:35 44:24 128 148
Shushannah 35:16 45:53 130 151
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 23:34 64 74
clivejharlow 36:58 31:20 84 97
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 35:16 94 109
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 29:30 78 90
E Bradford E Bradford 37:52 48:36 128 148
MalcolmD 38:12 98:04 256 297
Dr Dolittle 38:46 41:40 107 124
HanS 38:48 29:51 76 88
Aidleys 43:28 42:10 97 112
Steve Wood 43:44 35:00 80 93
empty 45:50 52:02 113 131
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 41:11 81 94

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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