Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29247

Date 04 June 2025
Number 29247
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 100
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 7
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29247

* 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 05:49 07:15 124 124
lili 05:56 08:39 145 145
Magoo 06:00 04:24 73 73
Paul Gilbert 06:02 06:14 103 103
cmjhutton 06:05 11:47 193 193
Diskus 06:11 07:23 119 119
verlaine Verlaine 06:17 07:45 123 123
Jason 06:23 07:22 115 115
Alexis Johansen 07:27 08:28 113 113
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:25 09:12 109 109
Umpire 09:00 09:12 102 102
asaldanha 09:31 08:48 92 92
markdobell 09:46 10:52 111 111
glheard glh 09:47 12:07 123 123
Ciolf 10:08 10:01 98 98
Kinghedger 10:41 12:06 113 113
SimonAnthony 10:47 08:33 79 79
lickert 10:55 12:32 114 114
keriothe_ keriothe 10:56 08:29 77 77
Deane Short Deane Short 11:04 10:34 95 95
chindit 11:04 10:02 90 90
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:21 11:38 102 102
Morphosis 11:39 10:57 93 93
miked1961 11:51 11:09 94 94
fuzz 11:58 11:21 94 94
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:03 13:03 108 108
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:09 12:11 100 100
Freemers 12:12 11:04 90 90
Sheapey Sheapey 12:24 10:44 86 86
tilbee 12:27 13:52 111 111
Silva 12:41 13:19 104 104
Groucho 13:00 15:03 115 115
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:16 14:34 109 109
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:22 14:57 111 111
Adelaider 13:24 15:32 115 115
Stavros Stavrolex 13:25 09:29 70 70
Aybee 13:36 14:40 107 107
Nigel1953 13:36 06:03 44 44
EricK 13:49 12:02 87 87
Ben Staveley 13:50 19:59 144 144
LouWeed LouWeed 13:51 17:09 123 123
alexh 14:07 14:54 105 105
Semillon 14:10 18:12 128 128
Rinteff Rinteff 14:17 15:25 107 107
Pootle Pootle 14:19 18:27 128 128
robertL 14:21 18:25 128 128
Tibthorpe 14:34 13:46 94 94
MK76 14:41 17:14 117 117
BlackburnRover 15:03 18:01 119 119
Finzi 15:03 17:33 116 116
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:03 12:48 85 85
julian_w 15:22 15:24 100 100
JezWoolfrey 15:26 15:59 103 103
gabrojak 15:26 10:45 69 69
myles 15:27 20:49 134 134
CentralLine CentralLine 15:51 22:12 140 140
andrewlake 15:54 18:46 118 118
LuckOfLucien 15:59 21:07 132 132
RobR RobR 16:03 16:14 101 101
whichcraft 16:08 15:23 95 95
hopkinb hopkinb 16:20 19:16 117 117
phthisis 16:29 13:46 83 83
Jeremy S 16:33 20:00 120 120
Encota 16:54 14:25 85 85
ajcauk1 16:58 20:31 120 120
rrricharrrd 17:04 10:58 64 64
ilan 17:08 17:15 100 100
Crossiant 17:30 13:29 77 77
cdb_100 17:40 10:59 62 62
DanSolo 17:41 22:49 129 129
tds 17:44 12:59 73 73
Craven 18:03 19:39 108 108
PGooden 18:05 17:41 97 97
Zander 18:11 20:30 112 112
robinh 18:20 32:01 174 174
Foozler 18:25 15:34 84 84
David Bourne 18:28 16:40 90 90
Colin2355 18:33 26:33 143 143
LJCN 18:39 13:43 73 73
daniel.faith 18:46 13:50 73 73
Squallaby 18:48 20:31 109 109
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:52 27:16 144 144
Gallion Fish 18:56 16:56 89 89
GMcD 19:01 21:54 115 115
Astonvilla.1 19:28 19:56 102 102
Upfisher 19:33 17:31 89 89
pc8 19:37 22:20 113 113
Curarist Curarist 19:48 19:53 100 100
Nangle 20:16 17:12 84 84
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:19 19:39 96 96
valerian1967 20:45 22:06 106 106
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:54 17:41 84 84
Waterloo 21:04 22:17 105 105
The Caffeine Kid 21:16 20:57 98 98
cath23 21:19 18:08 85 85
Hamish.S 21:25 31:00 144 144
Rod B 21:46 19:16 88 88
stainl665 22:04 22:14 100 100
goblin 22:08 24:11 109 109
Anomalospiza 22:29 18:06 80 80
JayEm 23:07 29:56 129 129
mjsaunders9 23:27 17:41 75 75
Tudds 23:41 23:01 97 97
martinr486 23:46 37:02 155 155
Aldus 24:29 24:50 101 101
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:31 25:21 103 103
Coffell 25:21 36:33 144 144
En Cee 25:21 21:19 84 84
Brenk Brenk1 25:42 25:24 98 98
chris661554 25:45 24:37 95 95
ulaca ulaca 26:12 22:14 84 84
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:14 28:47 109 109
Jamie Fox 26:21 28:16 107 107
barracuda barracuda 27:13 35:56 132 132
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:15 32:34 119 119
Edprof 27:50 32:28 116 116
Manveru 28:17 35:12 124 124
Yatton50 28:19 27:31 97 97
gbestanley 28:35 30:14 105 105
raincloud 28:43 32:54 114 114
Menelaus 29:01 27:00 93 93
David Luke 29:28 32:56 111 111
wimpoldo 29:29 30:32 103 103
piltdown man 30:06 38:16 127 127
richardCV22 30:29 26:11 85 85
laurence_da 31:43 25:43 81 81
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:53 25:28 79 79
BertieVII 31:59 40:14 125 125
kapietro kapietro 33:18 35:25 106 106
dosbarth 33:28 66:45 199 199
JoeyC 34:00 24:04 70 70
intentional rounding 34:01 37:47 111 111
koro kororareka 34:08 42:26 124 124
hectorslave 34:41 37:45 108 108
Cryptique 34:42 39:39 114 114
Rookie 35:55 29:38 82 82
starstruck starstruck_au 37:35 35:14 93 93
JGP 37:50 60:01 158 158
E Bradford E Bradford 37:57 44:18 116 116
HanS 38:20 48:37 126 126
maryht 41:04 40:42 99 99
CoxBurglar coxburglar 42:32 28:10 66 66
Steve Wood 43:01 47:05 109 109
j.stanton734 44:23 36:41 82 82
MichaelE 48:25 38:38 79 79

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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