Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29231

Date 16 May 2025
Number 29231
Day of week Friday
NITCH 120
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29231

* Requires access to the Times Crossword Club

Detailed solving results

 

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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 07:55 134 111
Paul Gilbert 05:54 08:43 147 122
cmjhutton 05:56 07:23 124 103
lili 06:06 07:16 119 99
Diskus 06:14 07:41 123 102
Jason 06:20 08:00 126 105
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 06:45 105 87
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 10:30 140 116
mistigris 07:28 10:13 136 113
Alexis Johansen 07:29 06:30 86 71
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 09:54 116 96
Umpire 09:01 10:29 116 96
asaldanha 09:27 09:04 95 79
richard 09:31 14:44 154 128
markdobell 09:54 13:30 136 113
Ciolf 10:09 14:09 139 115
tiggis 10:16 12:47 124 103
Kinghedger 10:44 11:36 108 90
lickert 10:51 15:22 141 117
chindit 10:54 10:46 98 81
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 17:36 158 131
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 11:21 98 81
Morphosis 11:31 12:41 110 91
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 12:25 105 87
andy 11:46 11:27 97 80
miked1961 11:53 21:46 183 152
chriswords 11:55 15:55 133 110
tilbee 12:08 20:31 169 140
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 14:32 118 98
Freemers 12:22 08:35 69 57
aphasic 12:28 19:10 153 127
Silva 12:50 19:27 151 125
Groucho 13:02 18:31 142 118
Secondbass 13:08 16:37 126 105
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:17 22:23 168 140
Adelaider 13:39 17:05 125 104
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 25:09 182 151
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:48 15:26 111 92
Ben Staveley 14:06 20:52 147 122
EricK 14:06 15:52 112 93
grape 14:07 32:12 228 190
Semillon 14:20 12:35 87 72
Pootle Pootle 14:24 17:49 123 102
Tibthorpe 14:35 20:45 142 118
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 16:59 115 95
Finzi 15:12 16:54 111 92
Looch 15:15 24:16 159 132
DunPangolin 15:19 17:37 115 95
franceslc11 15:23 20:31 133 110
gabrojak 15:31 21:12 136 113
tapbarker 15:46 23:05 146 121
cdb_100 15:50 19:27 122 101
andrewlake 15:55 22:08 139 115
LuckOfLucien 16:19 20:46 127 105
phthisis 16:23 16:14 99 82
Encota 16:33 20:52 126 105
ilan 16:53 21:53 129 107
rrricharrrd 17:07 28:18 165 137
DanSolo 17:38 19:57 113 94
whichcraft 17:39 16:56 95 79
KET 17:50 20:05 112 93
PGooden 17:52 21:25 119 99
Vannyx 17:56 24:40 137 114
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 17:51 98 81
robinh 18:13 23:21 128 106
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 35:33 194 161
Zander 18:18 28:14 154 128
Squallaby 18:26 17:35 95 79
daniel.faith 18:37 25:46 138 115
pc8 18:53 44:28 235 195
John Arnold 19:02 23:44 124 103
Mike C 19:02 24:48 130 108
Colin2355 19:13 35:08 182 151
Upfisher 19:29 30:19 155 129
Curarist Curarist 19:32 27:15 139 115
brian.richards1 20:00 06:09 30 25
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 23:53 117 97
valerian1967 20:18 24:52 122 101
tony the butcher montana 20:47 33:10 159 132
janesa 20:48 27:17 131 109
george.garlick 20:55 23:09 110 91
Hamish.S 21:08 27:46 131 109
stainl665 21:11 28:34 134 111
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 29:11 135 112
gsriordan52 21:47 15:29 71 59
goblin 21:57 23:58 109 90
Rod B 22:06 27:51 126 105
James P Special_bitter 22:10 43:47 197 164
rjhinde61 22:26 26:07 116 96
martinr486 22:47 34:01 149 124
JayEm 23:17 30:44 131 109
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 18:14 78 65
Tudds 24:04 35:28 147 122
1234 24:24 37:24 153 127
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 33:50 138 115
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 33:09 133 110
Coffell 24:57 27:23 109 90
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 33:15 132 110
chris661554 26:00 31:07 119 99
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 37:44 144 120
ratterz 26:05 23:31 90 75
ulaca ulaca 26:11 32:51 125 104
ofarrell 26:39 32:49 123 102
Dr_Bob 26:53 29:32 109 90
barracuda barracuda 27:07 23:52 88 73
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 28:51 106 88
Dixiegrand 27:18 33:11 121 100
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:33 46:00 166 138
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 27:47 32:51 118 98
nekabue 28:15 34:11 121 100
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 69:13 244 203
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:25 31:36 111 92
gbestanley 28:47 37:32 130 108
Manveru 28:49 45:02 156 130
simjt simjt 29:43 56:05 188 156
alistair.boere 31:18 69:31 222 185
BertieVII 31:22 31:27 100 83
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 46:06 145 120
hectorslave 32:53 43:56 133 110
koro kororareka 33:17 50:06 150 125
boltonwanderer 33:27 51:00 152 126
Lloyd 34:41 41:23 119 99
Shushannah 35:16 54:21 154 128
Rookie 36:02 44:30 123 102
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 26:51 73 60
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 102:07 274 228
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 47:13 125 104
HanS 38:48 38:31 99 82
rv_1 39:26 52:55 134 111
Steve Wood 43:44 75:37 172 143
MichaelE 46:46 103:31 221 184
profsjpayne 54:36 109:01 199 165

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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