Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29266

Date 26 June 2025
Number 29266
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 121
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 5
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29266

* 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 08:31 146 120
lili 05:56 06:45 113 93
Magoo 06:00 05:39 94 77
cmjhutton 06:05 09:23 154 127
Diskus 06:11 07:47 125 103
verlaine Verlaine 06:17 07:23 117 96
Jason 06:23 06:37 103 85
hilarym 06:53 10:25 151 124
Alexis Johansen 07:27 08:08 109 90
aphis99 aphis99 07:30 07:33 100 82
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:25 09:48 116 95
AlanS 09:29 12:56 136 112
asaldanha 09:31 12:55 135 111
markdobell 09:46 12:55 132 109
SimonAnthony 10:23 17:44 170 140
Kinghedger 10:41 13:59 130 107
Freemers 10:49 14:07 130 107
lickert 10:55 11:37 106 87
keriothe_ keriothe 10:56 13:57 127 104
scrabbler 11:02 11:23 103 85
chindit 11:04 12:15 110 90
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:21 16:29 145 119
Heyesey 11:21 10:20 91 75
David Crooks dcrooks 11:31 22:04 191 157
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:41 13:50 118 97
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:49 23:13 196 161
miked1961 11:51 19:29 164 135
andy 11:58 14:59 125 103
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:03 21:12 175 144
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:09 30:03 247 204
fuzz 12:09 24:38 202 166
Sheapey Sheapey 12:24 14:19 115 95
Silva 12:41 15:08 119 98
canismiser 12:44 23:19 183 151
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 12:45 16:53 132 109
Eddddddd 12:52 25:59 201 166
Groucho 13:00 16:12 124 102
Secondbass 13:02 15:28 118 97
JimboFS 13:07 15:57 121 100
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:22 19:48 148 122
Stavros Stavrolex 13:25 15:30 115 95
EricK 13:49 13:29 97 80
Rinteff Rinteff 13:50 17:40 127 104
Ben Staveley 13:50 18:38 134 110
LouWeed LouWeed 13:51 16:54 122 100
Peponi13 13:57 13:12 94 77
Semillon 14:10 22:41 160 132
benbush 14:17 24:30 171 141
Pootle Pootle 14:19 15:13 106 87
Tibthorpe 14:34 15:07 103 85
nmsellen 14:47 22:12 150 123
robertL 14:56 20:00 133 109
Looch 15:03 21:15 141 116
Finzi 15:03 18:26 122 100
franceslc11 15:03 14:24 95 78
DunPangolin 15:18 20:20 132 109
julian_w 15:22 18:01 117 96
tapbarker 15:44 22:45 144 119
myles 15:49 21:28 135 111
CentralLine CentralLine 15:51 20:48 131 108
andrewlake 15:54 19:49 124 102
RobR RobR 16:03 19:28 121 100
whichcraft 16:08 20:59 130 107
hopkinb hopkinb 16:20 21:07 129 106
phthisis 16:29 25:06 152 125
Jeremy S 16:33 22:13 134 110
Valance 16:45 18:25 109 90
Encota 16:54 17:34 103 85
rrricharrrd 17:04 31:50 186 153
Crossiant 17:30 25:59 148 122
PGooden 18:05 22:06 122 100
Zander 18:11 30:22 167 138
tds 18:12 22:40 124 102
robinh 18:20 30:33 166 137
Jeremy Kenyon 18:27 25:55 140 115
pterodactyl 18:30 28:41 155 128
Colin2355 18:33 23:40 127 104
LJCN 18:39 40:04 214 176
daniel.faith 18:46 19:04 101 83
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:52 16:20 86 71
Gallion Fish 18:56 16:15 85 70
GMcD 19:01 27:01 142 117
hugh schofield Leskoffer 19:21 24:14 125 103
KET 19:25 17:56 92 76
pc8 19:37 24:15 123 101
uvofiz 19:47 21:58 111 91
Curarist Curarist 19:53 30:02 151 124
Nangle 20:16 36:02 177 146
DianeRS 20:34 26:02 126 104
janesa 20:40 31:04 150 123
valerian1967 20:45 28:47 138 114
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:54 19:18 92 76
george.garlick 21:09 28:27 134 110
The Caffeine Kid 21:16 20:40 97 80
Hamish.S 21:25 33:29 156 128
tony the butcher montana 21:35 21:01 97 80
gsriordan52 21:43 22:13 102 84
Rod B 21:46 26:04 119 98
goblin 22:08 26:56 121 100
Fidelio 22:31 23:08 102 84
Anomalospiza 22:50 22:11 97 80
JayEm 23:07 21:26 92 76
Corymbia Corymbia 23:27 42:12 179 147
mjsaunders9 23:27 22:09 94 77
Tudds 23:41 31:52 134 110
medodd 24:03 32:39 135 111
crosswordian 24:19 29:37 121 100
Aldus 24:29 31:20 127 104
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:31 20:53 85 70
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:37 38:55 158 130
Coffell 25:21 38:45 152 125
SlumdogEngineer 25:27 38:46 152 125
Brenk Brenk1 25:42 34:50 135 111
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:14 34:01 129 106
barracuda barracuda 27:13 31:34 115 95
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:15 34:13 125 103
Manveru 28:17 40:17 142 117
nekabue 28:20 43:22 153 126
gbestanley 28:35 38:15 133 109
David Luke 29:28 26:21 89 73
RogerC 29:29 41:43 141 116
laurence_da 31:43 23:08 72 59
alistair.boere 31:48 49:04 154 127
BertieVII 31:59 40:58 128 105
gothick gothick 33:20 47:00 141 116
boltonwanderer 33:51 47:00 138 114
JoeyC 34:00 78:41 231 190
intentional rounding 34:01 44:13 129 106
koro kororareka 34:08 36:05 105 86
The Real Steve Snackman 34:37 46:42 134 110
Cryptique 34:42 35:29 102 84
Rookie 35:55 43:03 119 98
Shushannah 36:08 67:07 185 152
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:39 52:48 144 119
Birdingbob 36:50 46:09 125 103
starstruck starstruck_au 37:35 44:29 118 97
HanS 37:54 52:48 139 114
E Bradford E Bradford 37:57 44:24 116 95
MalcolmD 38:35 44:11 114 94
rv_1 39:13 39:51 101 83
maryht 41:52 37:39 89 73
Steve Wood 43:01 52:02 120 99
j.stanton734 44:23 53:00 119 98
Aidleys 44:51 60:03 133 109
empty 45:26 53:04 116 95
MichaelE 48:25 58:33 120 99

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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