Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29270

Date 01 July 2025
Number 29270
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 72
Count of ref solvers 45
Ref solvers excluded with errors 1
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29270

* 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
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 04:42 61 84
boulemiche 08:43 08:37 98 136
glheard glh 09:39 07:16 75 104
Ciolf 10:04 06:28 64 88
Kinghedger 10:39 08:15 77 106
Freemers 10:43 12:07 113 156
Heyesey 11:09 05:10 46 63
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 04:51 42 58
miked1961 11:45 07:33 64 88
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 08:55 74 102
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 10:41 76 105
Pootle Pootle 14:10 13:01 91 126
Ben Staveley 14:30 09:48 67 93
Riche Riche 14:30 11:27 78 108
Tibthorpe 14:42 10:59 74 102
DunPangolin 14:56 13:27 90 125
BlackburnRover 15:14 12:51 84 116
cdb_100 15:20 09:49 64 88
andrewlake 15:48 13:29 85 118
LuckOfLucien 16:19 11:10 68 94
Jeremy S 16:37 19:22 116 161
ilan 16:57 10:05 59 81
KET 18:16 19:11 105 145
Jeremy Kenyon 19:04 27:49 145 201
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 15:20 79 109
John Arnold 19:17 19:14 99 137
Gallion Fish 19:43 18:13 92 127
Jagsfan1971 20:23 14:26 70 97
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 11:24 54 75
valerian1967 21:01 14:08 67 93
Hamish.S 21:37 16:46 77 106
gsriordan52 21:47 10:43 49 68
Waterloo 21:56 16:58 77 106
stainl665 22:21 15:39 70 97
Anomalospiza 22:23 19:37 87 120
goblin 22:49 16:39 72 100
Tudds 22:55 14:45 64 88
JayEm 23:09 09:09 39 54
mjsaunders9 23:41 15:52 66 91
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:14 20:51 86 119
Coffell 26:03 17:05 65 90
symbenall2 26:11 16:46 64 88
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:46 25:23 94 130
wimpoldo 27:36 32:12 116 161
Manveru 28:06 19:01 67 93
alwsn8 28:17 14:42 51 70
Menelaus 28:38 14:34 50 69
nekabue 29:23 18:15 62 86
Grumpole Grumpole 29:23 21:28 73 101
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:04 26:25 87 120
birthday girl 32:08 23:03 71 98
intentional rounding 33:38 18:00 53 73
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 26:18 77 106
Lloyd 34:47 28:18 81 112
koro kororareka 34:56 24:37 70 97
Shushannah 36:55 30:53 83 115
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 43:23 117 162
HanS 38:12 25:39 67 93
JGP 38:44 16:15 41 56
MalcolmD 38:54 23:16 59 81
Dr Dolittle 39:05 28:54 73 101
maryht 40:05 30:24 75 104
Steve Wood 42:50 25:36 59 81
empty 45:19 28:17 62 86
Aidleys 46:20 16:38 35 48

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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