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 85
Count of ref solvers 70
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
cmjhutton 05:56 05:04 85 100
Magoo 06:02 04:21 72 84
lili 06:06 03:47 62 72
Diskus 06:14 04:55 78 91
Jason 06:20 05:58 94 110
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 05:19 82 96
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 08:48 118 138
mistigris 07:28 05:24 72 84
Alexis Johansen 07:29 06:39 88 103
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 09:00 106 124
asaldanha 09:27 05:36 59 69
richard 09:31 07:43 81 95
AlanS 09:35 08:12 85 100
markdobell 09:54 09:43 98 115
Ciolf 10:09 08:01 78 91
KenD51 10:10 12:40 124 145
SimonAnthony 10:38 13:42 128 150
Kinghedger 10:44 11:45 109 128
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 09:25 87 102
chindit 10:54 11:23 104 122
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 11:08 100 117
edwards.robert1 11:11 10:59 98 115
neilr neilr 11:12 10:29 93 109
scrabbler 11:13 09:39 86 101
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 10:28 91 107
Morphosis 11:31 10:09 88 103
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 12:13 105 123
drginacoco 11:33 02:07 18 21
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 14:17 121 142
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 15:56 135 158
miked1961 11:53 11:28 96 112
njnclarke 11:54 10:45 90 105
chriswords 11:55 11:39 97 114
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 12:45 106 124
tilbee 12:08 16:11 133 156
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 09:22 76 89
Freemers 12:22 13:12 106 124
Silva 12:50 11:10 87 102
Groucho 13:02 11:27 87 102
Secondbass 13:08 09:57 75 88
m28ale 13:09 18:20 139 163
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 10:59 82 96
Eddddddd 13:32 15:36 115 135
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:39 13:50 101 118
Adelaider 13:39 14:25 105 123
alexh 13:42 14:54 108 127
benbush 14:04 15:03 106 124
Peponi13 14:04 09:16 65 76
EricK 14:06 08:34 60 70
robertL 14:20 13:04 91 107
Pootle Pootle 14:24 14:01 97 114
Rinteff Rinteff 14:26 12:02 83 97
Tibthorpe 14:35 13:46 94 110
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:42 12:57 88 103
myles 14:57 12:37 84 98
Finzi 15:12 13:12 86 101
JezWoolfrey 15:16 21:55 143 168
franceslc11 15:23 09:51 64 75
cdb_100 15:50 14:16 90 105
andrewlake 15:55 12:14 76 89
RobR RobR 15:57 11:44 73 85
cmcnsmith 16:03 18:55 117 137
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 14:12 88 103
McBeakLives 16:17 19:12 117 137
LuckOfLucien 16:19 14:54 91 107
phthisis 16:23 11:55 72 84
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 15:37 94 110
Encota 16:33 13:01 78 91
ajcauk1 17:05 14:58 87 102
rrricharrrd 17:07 09:34 55 64
Achernar 17:18 20:23 117 137
whichcraft 17:39 12:27 70 82
KET 17:50 18:29 103 121
Gallion Fish 17:57 18:54 105 123
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 25:37 141 165
Foozler 18:08 19:15 106 124
LJCN 18:14 15:28 84 98
Craven 18:26 18:30 100 117
FraserH 18:30 12:53 69 81
pterodactyl 18:36 19:36 105 123
daniel.faith 18:37 15:43 84 98
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:38 19:53 106 124
pc8 18:53 16:33 87 102
John Arnold 19:02 29:39 155 182
Colin2355 19:13 17:52 92 108
KarenR 19:27 19:35 100 117
Curarist Curarist 19:32 12:08 62 72
uvofiz 19:44 16:51 85 100
DamienKnapma 19:51 20:18 102 120
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 17:11 84 98
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 25:25 125 147
valerian1967 20:18 16:42 82 96
dr.shred 20:51 25:53 124 145
Hamish.S 21:08 18:44 88 103
tonym 21:26 18:50 87 102
Dvynys dvynys 21:31 18:47 87 102
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 17:55 82 96
gsriordan52 21:47 21:11 97 114
goblin 21:57 24:22 111 130
david_ch 22:06 17:30 79 92
Rod B 22:06 17:28 79 92
James P Special_bitter 22:10 20:25 92 108
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 26:17 112 131
Tudds 24:04 19:28 80 94
medodd 24:05 22:17 92 108
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 21:33 88 103
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 24:15 98 115
Crippens1 24:53 26:11 105 123
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 20:40 82 96
Coffell 24:57 31:04 124 145
mjsaunders9 25:16 21:11 83 97
Brenk Brenk1 25:27 25:55 101 118
chris661554 26:00 20:08 77 90
Aldus 26:03 21:03 80 94
ratterz 26:05 19:07 73 85
En Cee 26:12 18:10 69 81
Dr_Bob 26:53 20:57 77 90
Jamie Fox 27:01 16:44 61 71
barracuda barracuda 27:07 22:50 84 98
nekabue 28:15 35:00 123 144
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:25 25:50 90 105
Menelaus 28:35 21:06 73 85
gbestanley 28:47 28:40 99 116
Manveru 28:49 25:42 89 104
Winchelt618 29:05 28:54 99 116
RogerC 29:26 22:54 77 90
richardCV22 30:13 22:58 76 89
dosbarth 31:18 28:04 89 104
alistair.boere 31:18 29:11 93 109
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 38:39 121 142
koro kororareka 33:17 30:12 90 105
boltonwanderer 33:27 37:00 110 129
JoeyC 33:50 13:07 38 44
Cryptique 34:35 44:24 128 150
Shushannah 35:16 45:53 130 152
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 23:34 64 75
clivejharlow 36:58 31:20 84 98
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 35:16 94 110
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 29:30 78 91
MalcolmD 38:12 98:04 256 301
Dr Dolittle 38:46 41:40 107 125
HanS 38:48 29:51 76 89
Aidleys 43:28 42:10 97 114
Steve Wood 43:44 35:00 80 94
empty 45:50 52:02 113 132
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 41:11 81 95

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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