Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29267

Date 27 June 2025
Number 29267
Day of week Friday
NITCH 200
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29267

* 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 10:48 185 92
lili 05:56 10:48 182 91
Magoo 06:00 08:31 141 70
verlaine Verlaine 06:17 15:34 247 123
aphis99 aphis99 07:30 15:08 201 100
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:25 19:53 236 118
Umpire 09:00 13:55 154 77
asaldanha 09:31 28:15 296 148
Ciolf 10:08 20:24 201 100
Freemers 10:49 12:02 111 55
lickert 10:55 13:19 121 60
keriothe_ keriothe 10:56 26:54 246 123
Deane Short Deane Short 11:04 20:48 187 93
chindit 11:04 20:36 186 93
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:41 25:19 216 108
miked1961 11:51 21:04 177 88
fuzz 12:09 10:22 85 42
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:09 34:20 282 141
Sheapey Sheapey 12:24 30:55 249 124
tilbee 12:27 30:45 246 123
Stavros Stavrolex 13:25 34:33 257 128
LouWeed LouWeed 13:51 22:38 163 81
Semillon 14:10 32:35 230 115
Pootle Pootle 14:19 28:36 199 99
Tibthorpe 14:34 37:50 259 129
robertL 14:56 43:00 287 143
Finzi 15:03 18:41 124 62
franceslc11 15:03 31:54 211 105
tapbarker 15:44 37:06 235 117
andrewlake 15:54 23:32 148 74
whichcraft 16:08 46:49 290 145
phthisis 16:29 35:15 213 106
ilan 17:08 23:38 137 68
Crossiant 17:30 39:15 224 112
DanSolo 17:41 32:34 184 92
PGooden 18:05 52:25 289 144
Zander 18:11 31:45 174 87
robinh 18:20 26:41 145 72
daniel.faith 18:46 42:31 226 113
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:52 64:59 344 172
GMcD 19:01 44:43 235 117
pc8 19:37 32:22 164 82
Curarist Curarist 19:53 55:21 278 139
valerian1967 20:45 34:47 167 83
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:54 34:25 164 82
The Caffeine Kid 21:16 11:04 52 26
Rod B 21:46 46:03 211 105
goblin 22:08 35:54 162 81
Anomalospiza 22:50 53:06 232 116
JayEm 23:07 49:04 212 106
steve.laverock 23:08 54:49 236 118
crosswordian 24:19 39:28 162 81
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:31 55:22 225 112
Coffell 25:21 22:21 88 44
En Cee 25:21 38:28 151 75
chris661554 25:45 51:57 201 100
Jamie Fox 26:21 80:25 305 152
barracuda barracuda 27:13 46:31 170 85
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:15 71:12 261 130
nekabue 28:20 77:29 273 136
David Luke 29:28 39:59 135 67
crucihacker Crucihacker 30:13 66:21 219 109
SK42 33:16 75:40 227 113
boltonwanderer 33:51 90:00 265 132
JoeyC 34:00 60:12 177 88
The Real Steve Snackman 34:37 74:19 214 107
Cryptique 34:42 49:16 141 70
Shushannah 36:08 78:36 217 108
starstruck starstruck_au 37:35 65:38 174 87
rv_1 39:13 100:40 256 128
Dr Dolittle 41:48 78:37 188 94
Steve Wood 43:01 68:22 158 79
j.stanton734 44:23 47:02 105 52
empty 45:26 83:35 183 91

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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