Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29239

Date 26 May 2025
Number 29239
Day of week Monday
NITCH 65
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29239

* 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 04:20 73 112
Paul Gilbert 05:54 03:21 56 86
cmjhutton 05:56 06:32 110 169
Magoo 06:02 04:45 78 120
lili 06:06 04:18 70 107
Diskus 06:14 05:00 80 123
Jason 06:20 02:46 43 66
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 03:44 58 89
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 03:47 50 76
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 07:02 82 126
boulemiche 08:48 08:14 93 143
Umpire 09:01 06:54 76 116
asaldanha 09:27 06:03 64 98
AlanS 09:35 06:34 68 104
glheard glh 09:50 05:17 53 81
markdobell 09:54 05:53 59 90
Ciolf 10:09 05:38 55 84
SimonAnthony 10:38 06:16 58 89
Kinghedger 10:44 06:52 63 96
lickert 10:51 07:28 68 104
toots 10:54 10:16 94 144
chindit 10:54 09:52 90 138
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 07:53 70 107
neilr neilr 11:12 07:44 69 106
scrabbler 11:13 07:23 65 100
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 07:27 64 98
Morphosis 11:31 08:19 72 110
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:32 07:47 67 103
David Crooks dcrooks 11:36 07:21 63 96
ChuckB 11:36 09:28 81 124
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 07:31 64 98
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 09:12 78 120
miked1961 11:53 06:57 58 89
njnclarke 11:54 07:28 62 95
chriswords 11:55 13:25 112 172
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 08:24 70 107
tilbee 12:08 09:52 81 124
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 07:48 63 96
Freemers 12:22 08:02 64 98
aphasic 12:28 07:05 56 86
canismiser 12:47 10:06 79 121
Silva 12:50 11:18 88 135
JimboFS 12:54 09:54 76 116
d.middleton 12:57 12:11 94 144
Groucho 13:02 08:03 61 93
Paul Bacon 13:03 11:46 90 138
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:17 10:22 78 120
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 08:25 63 96
Adelaider 13:39 07:31 55 84
alexh 13:42 14:01 102 156
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 11:25 82 126
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:48 07:02 50 76
EricK 14:06 09:34 67 103
Ben Staveley 14:06 07:56 56 86
Semillon 14:20 06:26 44 67
robertL 14:20 09:29 66 101
Pootle Pootle 14:24 10:24 72 110
Rinteff Rinteff 14:26 09:48 67 103
Carol 14:33 08:57 61 93
Tibthorpe 14:35 08:35 58 89
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 09:58 67 103
MK76 14:48 11:18 76 116
myles 14:57 13:16 88 135
chriswestontour Chris West 15:03 17:30 116 178
BlackburnRover 15:08 10:03 66 101
Finzi 15:12 07:44 50 76
Looch 15:15 12:02 78 120
DunPangolin 15:19 10:57 71 109
franceslc11 15:23 08:51 57 87
jimwetzler 15:26 13:52 89 136
gabrojak 15:31 08:29 54 83
tapbarker 15:46 13:06 83 127
cdb_100 15:50 11:12 70 107
andrewlake 15:55 10:00 62 95
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 07:34 47 72
nmsellen 16:13 09:30 58 89
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 09:44 59 90
Encota 16:33 10:55 65 100
Jeremy S 16:52 12:56 76 116
ilan 16:53 13:40 80 123
ajcauk1 17:05 12:01 70 107
Cookincats 17:06 14:41 85 130
rrricharrrd 17:07 14:55 87 133
Crossiant 17:25 10:32 60 92
DanSolo 17:38 13:43 77 118
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 11:06 61 93
robinh 18:13 13:35 74 113
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 11:54 65 100
LJCN 18:14 12:18 67 103
Zander 18:18 13:42 74 113
GMcD 18:23 15:29 84 129
Craven 18:26 12:22 67 103
Squallaby 18:26 12:28 67 103
pterodactyl 18:36 18:38 100 153
daniel.faith 18:37 13:23 71 109
David Bourne 18:47 15:13 81 124
MrChumley MrChumley 18:49 14:12 75 115
Sheen 19:01 13:38 71 109
John Arnold 19:02 13:14 69 106
Colin2355 19:13 10:26 54 83
Astonvilla.1 19:14 24:59 129 198
Nangle 19:24 14:41 75 115
Curarist Curarist 19:32 10:46 55 84
uvofiz 19:44 16:28 83 127
brian.richards1 20:00 13:33 67 103
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 13:37 67 103
kath 20:38 15:42 76 116
UisceTe 20:47 20:38 99 152
janesa 20:48 15:52 76 116
george.garlick 20:55 16:14 77 118
Hamish.S 21:08 13:33 64 98
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 21:26 21:50 101 155
DianeRS 21:28 12:41 59 90
jimancliffe 21:40 17:13 79 121
gsriordan52 21:47 12:10 55 84
goblin 21:57 15:20 69 106
Rod B 22:06 16:21 73 112
James P Special_bitter 22:10 13:24 60 92
Jagsfan1971 22:22 11:29 51 78
rjhinde61 22:26 15:14 67 103
JayEm 23:17 20:47 89 136
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 14:38 62 95
steve.laverock 23:51 14:36 61 93
Tudds 24:04 12:33 52 80
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:26 12:19 50 76
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 12:20 49 75
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 13:00 52 80
Coffell 24:57 18:31 74 113
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 15:19 61 93
mjsaunders9 25:16 13:19 52 80
mich_punk 25:29 14:10 55 84
SlumdogEngineer 25:50 17:42 68 104
chris661554 26:00 20:02 77 118
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 16:22 62 95
ulaca ulaca 26:11 28:22 108 166
En Cee 26:12 14:24 54 83
Dr_Bob 26:53 14:54 55 84
Jamie Fox 27:01 15:53 58 89
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 20:29 75 115
Yatton50 27:42 18:08 65 100
nekabue 28:15 17:05 60 92
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 22:03 77 118
gbestanley 28:47 17:44 61 93
Manveru 28:49 13:45 47 72
RogerC 29:26 15:30 52 80
wimpoldo 29:26 17:49 60 92
simjt simjt 29:43 15:16 51 78
richardCV22 30:13 14:18 47 72
dosbarth 31:18 28:25 90 138
BertieVII 31:22 18:09 57 87
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 19:37 61 93
joss henry 31:45 32:53 103 158
symbenall2 32:57 23:25 71 109
koro kororareka 33:17 28:07 84 129
kapietro kapietro 34:13 23:10 67 103
Maggot 34:23 33:23 97 149
Lloyd 34:41 28:53 83 127
Rookie 36:02 33:41 93 143
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 16:39 45 69
Birdingbob 36:28 21:31 59 90
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 24:06 64 98
JGP 37:35 21:40 57 87
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:50 22:08 58 89
Jax74 37:58 25:17 66 101
MalcolmD 38:12 21:39 56 86
HanS 38:48 35:43 92 141
NAPASAI napasai 38:48 18:54 48 73
rv_1 39:26 26:22 66 101
maryht 40:15 25:16 62 95
Steve Wood 43:44 36:54 84 129
j.stanton734 45:15 18:26 40 61
empty 45:50 39:26 86 132
MichaelE 46:46 25:02 53 81
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 24:40 48 73
kjbr 51:45 37:29 72 110
profsjpayne 54:36 102:06 186 286
NJP1 58:29 24:59 42 64

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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