Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5164

Date 18 May 2025
Number 5164
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 105
Count of ref solvers 43
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5164

* 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 07:15 123 117
cmjhutton 05:56 04:08 69 65
Magoo 06:02 04:57 82 78
Jason 06:20 09:11 145 138
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 06:15 97 92
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 06:39 89 84
mistigris 07:28 07:59 106 100
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 08:54 104 99
donalhurley11 08:37 17:18 200 190
boulemiche 08:48 10:33 119 113
Umpire 09:01 11:06 123 117
AlanS 09:35 09:56 103 98
Legbiter 09:42 06:21 65 61
Icarus 09:43 07:00 72 68
markdobell 09:54 14:27 145 138
Ciolf 10:09 12:53 126 120
DennisO 10:31 10:02 95 90
SimonAnthony 10:38 15:37 146 139
Kinghedger 10:44 16:33 154 146
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 17:45 159 151
scrabbler 11:13 12:40 112 106
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 12:59 112 106
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 15:18 132 125
Heyesey 11:37 09:26 81 77
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 13:57 118 112
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 10:58 93 88
miked1961 11:53 15:29 130 123
fuzz 11:53 13:07 110 104
chriswords 11:55 12:10 102 97
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 12:20 103 98
tilbee 12:08 12:29 102 97
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 13:43 111 105
Freemers 12:22 13:15 107 101
aphasic 12:28 13:35 108 102
Alan Abrams 12:54 12:31 97 92
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:17 14:10 106 100
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 11:42 87 82
alexh 13:42 17:00 124 118
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 14:22 104 99
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:48 16:42 121 115
EricK 14:06 15:19 108 102
Ben Staveley 14:06 16:53 119 113
Semillon 14:20 15:43 109 103
Rinteff Rinteff 14:26 16:40 115 109
Carol 14:33 18:05 124 118
Riche Riche 14:52 14:20 96 91
Finzi 15:12 17:06 112 106
Looch 15:15 16:32 108 102
franceslc11 15:23 12:56 84 80
tapbarker 15:46 11:57 75 71
andrewlake 15:55 15:59 100 95
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 17:48 110 104
phthisis 16:23 12:42 77 73
Cookincats 17:06 16:19 95 90
earlylight 17:35 16:22 93 88
KET 17:50 18:19 102 97
Upfisher 19:29 13:36 69 65
uvofiz 19:44 15:34 78 74
Tudds 24:04 12:26 51 48
Jamie Fox 27:01 18:07 67 63

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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