Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29243

Date 30 May 2025
Number 29243
Day of week Friday
NITCH 125
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29243

* 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 06:07 104 83
Paul Gilbert 05:54 10:01 169 135
cmjhutton 05:56 07:16 122 97
Magoo 06:02 09:35 158 126
lili 06:06 06:04 99 79
Diskus 06:14 06:11 99 79
Jason 06:20 07:38 120 96
verlaine Verlaine 06:25 05:38 87 69
aphis99 aphis99 07:27 10:53 146 116
Alexis Johansen 07:29 09:10 122 97
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:29 07:08 84 67
Umpire 09:01 11:20 125 100
asaldanha 09:27 14:25 152 121
AlanS 09:35 15:52 165 132
glheard glh 09:50 12:52 130 104
Ciolf 10:09 10:43 105 84
Kinghedger 10:44 14:31 135 108
Deane Short Deane Short 10:47 17:49 165 132
lickert 10:51 13:19 122 97
chindit 10:54 13:39 125 100
keriothe_ keriothe 11:08 19:49 177 141
neilr neilr 11:12 20:12 180 144
scrabbler 11:13 12:36 112 89
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:30 14:55 129 103
David Crooks dcrooks 11:36 12:35 108 86
Heyesey 11:37 17:54 154 123
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:45 11:07 94 75
fuzz 11:53 11:10 93 74
miked1961 11:53 20:41 174 139
njnclarke 11:54 20:04 168 134
Topical Tim Topical Tim 11:57 16:40 139 111
Sheapey Sheapey 12:16 12:09 99 79
Freemers 12:22 16:55 136 108
Silva 12:50 17:38 137 109
JimboFS 12:54 22:04 171 136
Groucho 13:02 15:57 122 97
Secondbass 13:08 19:45 150 120
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 18:19 137 109
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:39 19:57 146 116
LouWeed LouWeed 13:47 18:00 130 104
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:48 17:17 125 100
benbush 14:04 21:30 152 121
EricK 14:06 20:05 142 113
Ben Staveley 14:06 22:57 162 129
Semillon 14:20 14:35 101 80
robertL 14:20 20:00 139 111
Rinteff Rinteff 14:26 21:47 150 120
Carol 14:33 20:55 143 114
Tibthorpe 14:35 18:01 123 98
Penfold_61 Penfold 14:40 18:56 129 103
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:42 16:24 111 88
Riche Riche 14:52 20:02 134 107
BlackburnRover 15:08 19:39 129 103
Looch 15:15 14:58 98 78
franceslc11 15:23 15:17 99 79
jimwetzler 15:26 26:29 171 136
gabrojak 15:31 22:31 145 116
julian_w 15:42 18:05 115 92
tapbarker 15:46 22:06 140 112
andrewlake 15:55 16:45 105 84
CentralLine CentralLine 16:03 21:45 135 108
hopkinb hopkinb 16:29 21:42 131 104
Valance 16:43 24:26 146 116
ilan 16:53 18:44 110 88
rrricharrrd 17:07 20:52 121 96
Achernar 17:18 21:55 126 100
earlylight 17:35 27:28 156 124
PGooden 17:52 25:40 143 114
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:03 22:28 124 99
LJCN 18:14 31:39 173 138
Jeremy Kenyon 18:14 21:58 120 96
Zander 18:18 18:38 101 80
GMcD 18:23 25:43 139 111
Craven 18:26 17:37 95 76
Squallaby 18:26 16:00 86 68
daniel.faith 18:37 29:38 159 127
David Bourne 18:47 23:15 123 98
pc8 18:53 23:00 121 96
Nangle 19:24 18:31 95 76
Curarist Curarist 19:32 21:09 108 86
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:15 36:49 181 144
Waterloo 20:39 27:47 134 107
UisceTe 20:47 23:17 112 89
janesa 20:48 27:40 133 106
george.garlick 20:55 12:58 61 48
Hamish.S 21:08 41:56 198 158
Dvynys dvynys 21:31 29:51 138 110
The Caffeine Kid 21:37 26:24 122 97
jimancliffe 21:40 35:18 162 129
gsriordan52 21:47 22:58 105 84
goblin 21:57 25:39 116 92
James P Special_bitter 22:10 28:59 130 104
Jagsfan1971 22:22 17:04 76 60
Grestyman Grestyman 22:24 15:45 70 56
rjhinde61 22:26 19:17 85 68
infinitejest 23:16 26:49 115 92
JayEm 23:17 28:30 122 97
Corymbia Corymbia 23:21 20:44 88 70
Tudds 24:04 24:50 103 82
crosswordian 24:26 24:52 101 80
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:42 39:17 159 127
Coffell 24:57 34:17 137 109
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 26:25 105 84
mjsaunders9 25:16 38:10 151 120
Brenk Brenk1 25:27 40:00 157 125
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:03 29:43 114 91
ulaca ulaca 26:11 31:44 121 96
Dr_Bob 26:53 38:48 144 115
Jamie Fox 27:01 27:22 101 80
barracuda barracuda 27:07 32:27 119 95
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:11 29:34 108 86
Edprof 27:52 46:29 166 132
nekabue 28:15 30:03 106 84
Grumpole Grumpole 28:17 26:09 92 73
gbestanley 28:47 39:38 137 109
Manveru 28:49 35:32 123 98
simjt simjt 29:43 29:50 100 80
richardCV22 30:13 40:31 134 107
BertieVII 31:22 46:09 147 117
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:41 35:13 111 88
alexngbr 32:22 39:26 121 96
hectorslave 32:53 53:58 164 131
koro kororareka 33:17 45:41 137 109
JoeyC 33:50 30:22 89 71
kapietro kapietro 34:13 48:36 142 113
Cryptique 34:35 57:17 165 132
intentional rounding 35:11 34:10 97 77
Shushannah 35:16 34:19 97 77
Jambo20 36:22 50:47 139 111
The Real Steve Snackman 36:23 42:10 115 92
starstruck starstruck_au 37:30 56:37 150 120
CoxBurglar coxburglar 37:50 111:23 294 235
E Bradford E Bradford 37:52 40:21 106 84
Dr Dolittle 38:46 40:57 105 84
HanS 38:48 40:03 103 82
maryht 40:15 43:26 107 85
Steve Wood 43:44 40:14 91 72
j.stanton734 45:15 35:52 79 63
empty 45:50 54:25 118 94
MichaelE 46:46 50:12 107 85
MartinP MartinP1 50:24 52:01 103 82
kjbr 51:45 67:40 130 104

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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