Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29241

Date 28 May 2025
Number 29241
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 89
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 18
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29241

* 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 04:22 74 83
Paul Gilbert 05:54 06:49 115 129
cmjhutton 05:56 05:50 98 110
lili 06:06 04:54 80 89
Diskus 06:14 05:09 82 92
Jason 06:20 08:35 135 151
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 04:41 72 80
Alexis Johansen 07:29 07:19 97 108
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 08:42 102 114
Umpire 09:01 08:13 91 102
richard 09:31 06:06 64 71
AlanS 09:35 09:18 97 108
Ciolf 10:09 11:47 116 130
SimonAnthony 10:38 13:41 128 143
Kinghedger 10:44 11:08 103 115
lickert 10:51 08:48 81 91
chindit 10:54 08:29 77 86
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 10:42 96 107
neilr neilr 11:12 13:22 119 133
scrabbler 11:13 08:50 78 87
Heyesey 11:37 11:03 95 106
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 11:44 13:38 116 130
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 13:19 113 126
miked1961 11:53 12:06 101 113
chriswords 11:55 10:37 89 100
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 08:41 72 80
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 08:51 72 80
aphasic 12:28 12:40 101 113
Silva 12:50 11:29 89 100
JimboFS 12:54 11:14 87 97
Secondbass 13:08 09:39 73 82
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 08:36 64 71
Adelaider 13:39 18:06 132 148
alexh 13:42 15:17 111 124
benbush 14:04 13:13 93 104
EricK 14:06 12:30 88 98
robertL 14:20 14:07 98 110
Semillon 14:20 10:11 71 79
Pootle Pootle 14:24 17:49 123 138
Tibthorpe 14:35 12:46 87 97
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 15:24 105 117
MK76 14:48 15:21 103 115
Riche Riche 14:52 16:04 108 121
myles 14:57 16:47 112 125
chriswestontour Chris West 15:03 19:58 132 148
BlackburnRover 15:08 16:04 106 119
Finzi 15:12 14:34 95 106
Looch 15:15 18:14 119 133
JezWoolfrey 15:16 13:37 89 100
DunPangolin 15:19 22:32 147 165
franceslc11 15:23 15:49 102 114
gabrojak 15:31 18:01 116 130
tapbarker 15:46 18:58 120 134
cdb_100 15:50 09:42 61 68
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 12:24 77 86
doublecross anguswalker 16:17 15:23 94 105
LuckOfLucien 16:19 19:31 119 133
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 13:33 82 92
Valance 16:43 17:16 103 115
ilan 16:53 17:18 102 114
Achernar 17:18 14:26 83 93
Crossiant 17:25 16:04 92 103
earlylight 17:35 26:01 147 165
PGooden 17:52 16:49 94 105
Gallion Fish 17:57 14:35 81 91
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 18:38 103 115
LJCN 18:14 16:01 87 97
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 21:59 120 134
Zander 18:18 25:44 140 157
GMcD 18:23 14:13 77 86
Craven 18:26 18:15 99 111
pterodactyl 18:36 18:11 97 108
daniel.faith 18:37 18:42 100 112
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:38 24:51 133 149
David Bourne 18:47 24:16 129 144
pc8 18:53 16:53 89 100
Sheen 19:01 22:13 116 130
John Arnold 19:02 18:18 96 107
Colin2355 19:13 14:54 77 86
Nangle 19:24 21:54 112 125
Curarist Curarist 19:32 16:20 83 93
uvofiz 19:44 20:12 102 114
DamienKnapma 19:51 29:03 146 164
brian.richards1 20:00 22:45 113 126
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 25:06 123 138
Waterloo 20:39 22:08 107 120
tony the butcher montana 20:47 25:53 124 139
george.garlick 20:55 15:26 73 82
Hamish.S 21:08 18:57 89 100
gsriordan52 21:47 18:43 85 95
goblin 21:57 20:58 95 106
Rod B 22:06 20:29 92 103
James P Special_bitter 22:10 18:07 81 91
Nigel1953 23:14 03:31 15 16
JayEm 23:17 15:08 64 71
Fidelio 23:19 30:19 130 146
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 22:41 97 108
steve.laverock 23:51 20:19 85 95
crosswordian 24:26 28:07 115 129
Crippens1 24:53 27:23 110 123
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:54 15:13 61 68
Coffell 24:57 24:16 97 108
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 27:02 107 120
mjsaunders9 25:16 15:40 62 69
chris661554 26:00 23:49 91 102
Aldus 26:03 30:12 115 129
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 21:18 81 91
ulaca ulaca 26:11 15:03 57 64
En Cee 26:12 21:44 82 92
Dr_Bob 26:53 33:49 125 140
barracuda barracuda 27:07 27:34 101 113
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 38:45 142 159
Yatton50 27:42 23:50 86 96
Edprof 27:52 19:02 68 76
nekabue 28:15 28:53 102 114
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 33:15 117 131
Menelaus 28:35 32:08 112 125
Manveru 28:49 27:03 93 104
simjt simjt 29:43 36:30 122 137
richardCV22 30:13 25:44 85 95
dosbarth 31:18 50:05 160 179
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 16:50 53 59
joss henry 31:45 40:15 126 141
hectorslave 32:53 36:56 112 125
koro kororareka 33:17 32:43 98 110
Cryptique 34:35 35:20 102 114
Lloyd 34:41 38:06 109 122
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 29:41 81 91
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 37:16 28:16 75 84
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:50 30:47 81 91
NAPASAI napasai 38:48 22:24 57 64
j.stanton734 45:15 32:32 71 79
empty 45:50 41:02 89 100
MichaelE 46:46 47:57 102 114
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 53:37 106 119
kjbr 51:45 36:38 70 78
NJP1 58:29 53:54 92 103

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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