Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29236

Date 22 May 2025
Number 29236
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 93
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 15
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29236

* 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 06:08 103 110
Magoo 06:02 05:14 86 92
Diskus 06:14 06:58 111 119
Jason 06:20 08:03 127 136
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 08:05 125 134
hilarym 06:48 05:58 87 93
mistigris 07:28 06:23 85 91
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 09:22 110 118
Umpire 09:01 08:30 94 101
fshephe 09:05 09:17 102 109
asaldanha 09:27 12:43 134 144
AlanS 09:35 10:21 108 116
glheard glh 09:50 10:54 110 118
markdobell 09:54 08:13 82 88
DrW 10:08 82:44 816 877
Ciolf 10:09 07:30 73 78
SimonAnthony 10:38 10:52 102 109
Kinghedger 10:44 10:22 96 103
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 10:25 96 103
lickert 10:51 10:14 94 101
chindit 10:54 13:23 122 131
edwards.robert1 11:11 05:53 52 55
scrabbler 11:13 08:48 78 83
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 09:13 80 86
Morphosis 11:31 15:06 131 140
ChuckB 11:36 17:25 150 161
Heyesey 11:37 10:19 88 94
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 11:08 94 101
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 15:06 128 137
john.brassey 11:46 17:34 149 160
miked1961 11:53 11:12 94 101
fuzz 11:53 10:25 87 93
njnclarke 11:54 16:12 136 146
chriswords 11:55 14:06 118 126
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 14:24 120 129
Freemers 12:22 09:37 77 82
canismiser 12:47 18:19 143 153
Groucho 13:02 12:36 96 103
Secondbass 13:08 13:07 99 106
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:17 18:07 136 146
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 08:09 61 65
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:39 12:57 94 101
alexh 13:42 13:20 97 104
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 13:25 97 104
benbush 14:04 21:19 151 162
EricK 14:06 11:52 84 90
robertL 14:20 20:02 139 149
Semillon 14:20 15:19 106 113
Pootle Pootle 14:24 12:22 85 91
Rinteff Rinteff 14:26 13:12 91 97
Tibthorpe 14:35 15:01 102 109
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 14:09 96 103
MK76 14:48 18:36 125 134
Riche Riche 14:52 14:24 96 103
Finzi 15:12 15:57 104 111
Looch 15:15 12:04 79 84
DunPangolin 15:19 11:21 74 79
cdb_100 15:50 10:14 64 68
andrewlake 15:55 16:24 103 110
RobR RobR 15:57 17:31 109 117
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 11:44 73 78
phthisis 16:23 16:32 100 107
Encota 16:33 19:07 115 123
Valance 16:43 20:37 123 132
ilan 16:53 17:03 100 107
Achernar 17:18 15:13 87 93
DanSolo 17:38 14:11 80 86
whichcraft 17:39 13:46 77 82
KET 17:50 15:19 85 91
PGooden 17:52 13:11 73 78
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 18:24 101 108
robinh 18:13 15:57 87 93
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 18:06 99 106
LJCN 18:14 16:53 92 98
Zander 18:18 20:42 113 121
GMcD 18:23 23:51 129 138
Craven 18:26 19:22 105 112
daniel.faith 18:37 13:53 74 79
pc8 18:53 19:27 103 110
Colin2355 19:13 15:00 78 83
KarenR 19:27 14:24 74 79
uvofiz 19:44 16:17 82 88
brian.richards1 20:00 08:51 44 47
Rembleforth 20:10 24:35 121 130
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 17:57 88 94
valerian1967 20:18 13:36 66 70
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:55 19:11 91 97
tonym 21:26 22:12 103 110
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 20:48 96 103
gsriordan52 21:47 16:22 75 80
goblin 21:57 22:15 101 108
rjhinde61 22:26 18:47 83 89
Nigel1953 23:14 04:25 19 20
JayEm 23:17 26:00 111 119
Tudds 24:04 18:18 76 81
medodd 24:05 27:22 113 121
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 14:38 59 63
crosswordian 24:26 22:32 92 98
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 25:04 100 107
mjsaunders9 25:16 14:12 56 60
chris661554 26:00 43:57 169 181
Aldus 26:03 19:12 73 78
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 26:53 103 110
En Cee 26:12 19:11 73 78
Dr_Bob 26:53 30:32 113 121
Jamie Fox 27:01 28:58 107 115
barracuda barracuda 27:07 26:25 97 104
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 18:30 68 73
Jeremy Weissmann plusjeremy 27:30 12:00 43 46
Yatton50 27:42 31:41 114 122
nekabue 28:15 31:57 113 121
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 21:39 76 81
uffindellbirtjn 28:45 20:42 72 77
Manveru 28:49 33:32 116 124
wimpoldo 29:26 37:21 126 135
RogerC 29:26 18:10 61 65
simjt simjt 29:43 37:50 127 136
richardCV22 30:13 25:19 83 89
alistair.boere 31:18 31:43 101 108
dosbarth 31:18 41:28 132 141
BertieVII 31:22 34:33 110 118
joss henry 31:45 39:12 123 132
symbenall2 32:57 26:46 81 87
koro kororareka 33:17 40:39 122 131
JoeyC 33:50 18:05 53 56
Cryptique 34:35 36:22 105 112
jackk.larg 35:06 39:51 113 121
intentional rounding 35:11 26:15 74 79
Shushannah 35:16 34:22 97 104
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 30:06 82 88
Birdingbob 36:28 41:17 113 121
JGP 37:35 52:29 139 149
Dr Dolittle 38:46 37:41 97 104
HanS 38:48 41:17 106 113
baronrob 40:03 29:13 72 77
maryht 40:15 39:00 96 103
Steve Wood 43:44 26:37 60 64
j.stanton734 45:15 32:08 71 76
empty 45:50 47:04 102 109

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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