Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29255

Date 13 June 2025
Number 29255
Day of week Friday
NITCH 131
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 18
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29255

* 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 06:59 120 91
lili 05:56 06:35 110 83
Magoo 06:00 08:51 147 112
Paul Gilbert 06:02 08:38 143 109
cmjhutton 06:05 08:35 141 107
Diskus 06:11 08:02 129 98
verlaine Verlaine 06:17 10:36 168 128
Jason 06:23 12:32 196 149
mistigris 07:27 09:33 128 97
Alexis Johansen 07:27 10:59 147 112
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:25 08:16 98 74
Umpire 09:00 10:52 120 91
AlanS 09:29 11:20 119 90
markdobell 09:46 12:47 130 99
Kinghedger 10:41 17:11 160 122
Freemers 10:49 14:46 136 103
lickert 10:55 19:12 175 133
keriothe_ keriothe 10:56 21:21 195 148
scrabbler 11:02 14:57 135 103
Deane Short Deane Short 11:04 12:25 112 85
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:21 15:38 137 104
neilr neilr 11:31 14:49 128 97
andy 11:58 16:50 140 106
chriswords 12:03 20:29 169 129
fuzz 12:09 10:40 87 66
Sheapey Sheapey 12:24 16:48 135 103
njnclarke 12:27 20:12 162 123
Silva 12:41 19:51 156 119
JimboFS 13:07 19:49 151 115
Stavros Stavrolex 13:25 22:05 164 125
EricK 13:49 12:34 90 68
Rinteff Rinteff 13:50 18:56 136 103
alexh 13:54 22:31 161 122
Semillon 14:10 17:51 126 96
benbush 14:17 20:37 144 109
Tibthorpe 14:34 21:34 148 112
robertL 14:56 14:50 99 75
franceslc11 15:03 19:44 131 100
Finzi 15:03 18:16 121 92
Looch 15:03 15:05 100 76
julian_w 15:22 17:49 115 87
johninterred Johninterred 15:32 28:13 181 138
tapbarker 15:44 34:40 220 167
andrewlake 15:54 18:11 114 87
phthisis 16:29 24:11 146 111
Jeremy S 16:33 22:14 134 102
Valance 16:45 29:28 175 133
rrricharrrd 17:04 19:13 112 85
ilan 17:08 20:42 120 91
cdb_100 17:40 21:14 120 91
DanSolo 17:41 84:07 475 362
earlylight 17:53 17:50 99 75
Zander 18:11 23:39 130 99
robinh 18:20 27:53 152 116
Jeremy Kenyon 18:27 24:05 130 99
pterodactyl 18:30 29:57 161 122
thewanderingeditor 18:43 23:37 126 96
Kalakuta72 18:44 21:02 112 85
Squallaby 18:48 32:02 170 129
Gallion Fish 18:56 29:11 154 117
GMcD 19:01 22:16 117 89
KarenR 19:05 32:52 172 131
pc8 19:37 36:49 187 142
uvofiz 19:47 21:36 109 83
Curarist Curarist 19:53 24:27 122 93
Willie F 19:55 23:39 118 90
dec 20:01 30:38 153 116
janesa 20:40 31:50 154 117
valerian1967 20:45 28:56 139 106
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:54 35:28 169 129
Waterloo 21:04 40:54 194 148
george.garlick 21:09 30:47 145 110
The Caffeine Kid 21:16 27:39 130 99
Hamish.S 21:25 23:46 110 83
dr.shred 21:27 17:28 81 61
tony the butcher montana 21:35 36:13 167 127
gsriordan52 21:43 27:56 128 97
Rod B 21:46 28:27 130 99
goblin 22:08 30:32 137 104
cath23 22:17 22:18 100 76
david_ch 22:22 32:50 146 111
Fidelio 22:31 46:31 206 157
James P Special_bitter 22:37 36:04 159 121
Anomalospiza 22:50 18:31 81 61
mjsaunders9 23:27 24:20 103 78
Tudds 23:41 23:23 98 74
medodd 24:03 26:10 108 82
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:37 43:40 177 135
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:52 42:34 171 130
Coffell 25:21 04:17 16 12
chris661554 25:45 54:24 211 161
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:14 41:40 158 120
Jamie Fox 26:21 22:19 84 64
barracuda barracuda 27:13 37:34 138 105
ratterz 27:27 20:35 74 56
Word Psmith wordpsmith 28:04 26:01 92 70
Manveru 28:17 35:11 124 94
nekabue 28:20 29:46 105 80
wimpoldo 28:42 37:31 130 99
NAPASAI napasai 29:21 31:48 108 82
RogerC 29:29 42:25 143 109
laurence_da 31:43 37:36 118 90
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:53 38:25 120 91
BertieVII 31:59 35:48 111 84
Maggot 33:04 55:01 166 126
SK42 33:16 33:56 102 77
kapietro kapietro 33:18 51:01 153 116
boltonwanderer 33:51 51:00 150 114
koro kororareka 34:08 55:48 163 124
Rookie 35:55 43:01 119 90
Shushannah 36:08 52:58 146 111
clivejharlow 36:15 44:42 123 93
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:39 59:05 161 122
Birdingbob 36:50 49:53 135 103
starstruck starstruck_au 37:35 55:42 148 112
HanS 37:54 49:53 131 100
rv_1 39:13 39:48 101 77
Steve Wood 43:01 56:21 130 99
j.stanton734 44:23 42:29 95 72
Aidleys 44:51 60:53 135 103
empty 45:26 58:22 128 97
hydrochoos hydrochoos 45:34 45:00 98 74
MartinP MartinP1 47:41 62:50 131 100

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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