Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29273

Date 04 July 2025
Number 29273
Day of week Friday
NITCH 137
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29273

* 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
lili 05:54 07:34 128 93
Magoo 05:56 08:14 138 100
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 07:29 118 86
Jason 06:29 15:21 236 172
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 14:30 189 137
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 09:10 110 80
Umpire 08:52 09:59 112 81
glheard glh 09:39 15:14 157 114
markdobell 09:43 15:30 159 116
Kinghedger 10:39 22:38 212 154
toots 10:51 18:41 172 125
lickert 11:04 15:04 136 99
chindit 11:08 12:33 112 81
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 24:46 219 159
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 11:20 99 72
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 19:01 164 119
andy 11:43 15:57 136 99
miked1961 11:45 19:21 164 119
fuzz 12:10 10:16 84 61
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 17:22 141 102
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 23:28 189 137
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 11:05 88 64
tilbee 12:41 24:50 195 142
Silva 12:48 18:58 148 108
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:14 20:33 155 113
EricK 13:16 24:58 188 137
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 22:05 165 120
Secondbass 13:25 21:33 160 116
Peponi13 13:45 14:30 105 76
Aybee 13:46 26:03 189 137
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 25:13 180 131
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:01 22:04 157 114
Semillon 14:14 20:14 142 103
Ben Staveley 14:30 13:11 90 65
Riche Riche 14:30 18:48 129 94
benbush 14:34 21:29 147 107
johninterred Johninterred 14:34 24:20 167 121
Rinteff Rinteff 14:38 15:57 108 78
Tibthorpe 14:42 23:21 158 115
gabrojak 14:45 23:51 161 117
MK76 14:52 25:24 170 124
franceslc11 15:02 20:02 133 97
Looch 15:05 17:23 115 83
Finzi 15:09 15:07 99 72
JezWoolfrey 15:18 15:58 104 75
julian_w 15:19 19:39 128 93
cdb_100 15:20 20:02 130 94
andrewlake 15:48 17:30 110 80
hopkinb hopkinb 15:57 24:39 154 112
tapbarker 15:59 14:55 93 67
LuckOfLucien 16:19 32:44 200 145
Valance 16:55 24:10 142 103
ilan 16:57 21:14 125 91
phthisis 16:59 31:21 184 134
Crossiant 17:18 22:15 128 93
David Bourne 17:57 29:45 165 120
PGooden 18:00 26:30 147 107
KET 18:16 15:59 87 63
Zander 18:27 19:50 107 78
Squallaby 18:28 19:22 104 75
robinh 18:41 27:59 149 108
daniel.faith 19:04 28:20 148 108
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 23:39 123 89
LJCN 19:15 23:59 124 90
Colin2355 19:20 32:07 166 121
pc8 19:40 26:42 135 98
Willie F 19:40 33:06 168 122
Curarist Curarist 20:18 24:37 121 88
janesa 20:38 26:35 128 93
Nangle 20:39 25:42 124 90
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 33:19 159 116
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 20:03 95 69
babka 21:01 21:35 102 74
tony the butcher montana 21:30 25:05 116 84
Hamish.S 21:37 27:57 129 94
Rod B 21:55 28:12 128 93
stainl665 22:21 29:44 133 97
Corymbia Corymbia 22:28 26:18 117 85
James P Special_bitter 22:31 24:03 106 77
goblin 22:49 26:25 115 83
Tudds 22:55 28:03 122 89
JayEm 23:09 29:16 126 91
mjsaunders9 23:41 27:10 114 83
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:14 31:12 128 93
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:45 35:44 144 105
medodd 24:54 41:11 165 120
Coffell 26:03 26:34 101 73
chris661554 26:06 40:27 154 112
crosswordian 26:14 28:58 110 80
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:46 38:25 143 104
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 23:42 87 63
wimpoldo 27:36 28:40 103 75
Manveru 28:06 80:18 285 208
alwsn8 28:17 30:02 106 77
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:28 29:56 105 76
Menelaus 28:38 39:40 138 100
gbestanley 28:39 33:23 116 84
Dr_Bob 28:46 37:58 131 95
RogerC 28:46 44:06 153 111
Gussie 29:04 31:20 107 78
Grumpole Grumpole 29:23 48:38 165 120
laurence_da 29:47 40:24 135 98
sagesse sagesse 32:14 55:10 171 124
Jeeves 33:00 30:42 93 67
Mudge Mudge 33:41 33:04 98 71
kapietro kapietro 33:44 51:27 152 110
Cryptique 34:50 48:44 139 101
Bossbutbee 34:56 84:51 242 176
koro kororareka 34:56 59:12 169 123
SK42 36:23 37:38 103 75
Peloton 36:47 67:25 183 133
Shushannah 36:55 37:08 100 72
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 69:07 187 136
rv_1 37:05 47:19 127 92
starstruck starstruck_au 37:08 56:05 151 110
HanS 38:12 47:59 125 91
E Bradford E Bradford 38:39 41:54 108 78
maryht 40:05 38:27 95 69
NAPASAI napasai 41:11 42:03 102 74
Steve Wood 42:50 54:38 127 92
empty 45:19 63:58 141 102
MichaelE 46:32 35:25 76 55
MartinP MartinP1 47:43 57:40 120 87
NJP1 54:25 87:28 160 116

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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