Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29225

Date 09 May 2025
Number 29225
Day of week Friday
NITCH 137
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29225

* 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 07:36 128 93
Magoo 06:02 11:20 187 136
lili 06:06 08:55 146 106
Diskus 06:14 08:08 130 94
Jason 06:20 09:24 148 108
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 07:34 117 85
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 10:48 144 105
mistigris 07:28 10:36 141 102
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 09:36 113 82
Umpire 09:01 14:09 156 113
fshephe 09:05 08:15 90 65
markdobell 09:54 20:26 206 150
Ciolf 10:09 16:57 166 121
KenD51 10:10 05:00 49 35
chindit 10:54 14:59 137 100
edwards.robert1 11:11 11:21 101 73
scrabbler 11:13 13:42 122 89
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 15:52 137 100
David Crooks dcrooks 11:36 17:24 150 109
Heyesey 11:37 15:04 129 94
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 14:49 126 91
miked1961 11:53 15:58 134 97
fuzz 11:53 10:47 90 65
chriswords 11:55 21:35 181 132
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 15:34 130 94
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 21:07 172 125
Freemers 12:22 12:52 104 75
Secondbass 13:08 21:57 167 121
Adelaider 13:39 20:53 152 110
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 17:17 125 91
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:48 15:11 110 80
TB22 14:01 21:33 153 111
benbush 14:04 14:44 104 75
EricK 14:06 22:29 159 116
Semillon 14:20 20:59 146 106
Tibthorpe 14:35 22:07 151 110
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 22:35 153 111
Finzi 15:12 18:36 122 89
franceslc11 15:23 23:03 149 108
cdb_100 15:50 19:06 120 87
andrewlake 15:55 19:51 124 90
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 23:02 143 104
doublecross anguswalker 16:17 79:16 486 354
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 22:34 136 99
ilan 16:53 22:27 132 96
Crossiant 17:25 21:02 120 87
DanSolo 17:38 20:15 114 83
whichcraft 17:39 20:17 114 83
KET 17:50 22:40 127 92
thewanderingeditor 17:56 33:01 184 134
Gallion Fish 17:57 73:51 411 300
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 22:52 126 91
robinh 18:13 22:29 123 89
Zander 18:18 21:49 119 86
GMcD 18:23 31:21 170 124
pc8 18:53 34:32 182 132
Mike Mansbridge 19:03 14:01 73 53
Colin2355 19:13 40:07 208 151
KarenR 19:27 27:05 139 101
Curarist Curarist 19:32 24:16 124 90
uvofiz 19:44 29:46 150 109
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 33:42 166 121
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 22:49 112 81
UisceTe 20:47 29:42 142 103
stainl665 21:11 34:36 163 118
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 28:16 130 94
squark 21:47 27:26 125 91
goblin 21:57 28:48 131 95
rjhinde61 22:26 19:07 85 62
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 36:50 157 114
steve.laverock 23:51 29:46 124 90
crosswordian 24:26 25:12 103 75
Coffell 24:57 30:13 121 88
mjsaunders9 25:16 72:52 288 210
Aldus 26:03 34:25 132 96
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 58:46 225 164
En Cee 26:12 39:15 149 108
Dr_Bob 26:53 48:58 182 132
barracuda barracuda 27:07 41:22 152 110
Edprof 27:52 32:37 117 85
David Luke 28:09 40:21 143 104
nekabue 28:15 33:53 119 86
ChrisBrea 28:43 33:49 117 85
Winchelt618 29:05 30:39 105 76
alistair.boere 31:18 34:36 110 80
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 38:39 121 88
hectorslave 32:53 42:48 130 94
koro kororareka 33:17 54:54 164 119
boltonwanderer 33:27 50:00 149 108
Cryptique 34:35 46:40 134 97
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 45:59 126 91
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 39:33 105 76
SK42 37:32 26:40 71 51
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:50 38:21 101 73
NAPASAI napasai 38:48 71:28 184 134
HanS 38:48 51:48 133 97
rv_1 39:26 32:52 83 60
maryht 40:15 46:20 115 83
Aidleys 43:28 55:17 127 92
Steve Wood 43:44 56:00 128 93
j.stanton734 45:15 39:58 88 64
empty 45:50 58:39 127 92
MichaelE 46:46 58:53 125 91

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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