Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29275

Date 07 July 2025
Number 29275
Day of week Monday
NITCH 76
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29275

* 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 03:36 61 80
Magoo 05:56 03:52 65 85
Paul Gilbert 06:07 04:15 69 90
cmjhutton 06:16 06:53 109 143
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 07:37 120 157
Jason 06:29 05:44 88 115
hilarym 06:56 06:47 97 127
Alexis Johansen 07:33 08:20 110 144
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 04:34 59 77
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 07:46 93 122
Umpire 08:52 08:02 90 118
asaldanha 09:16 06:11 66 86
AlanS 09:33 14:58 156 205
markdobell 09:43 07:36 78 102
Ciolf 10:04 07:56 78 102
SimonAnthony 10:18 14:05 136 178
Kinghedger 10:39 08:07 76 100
Freemers 10:43 07:39 71 93
toots 10:51 11:45 108 142
scrabbler 10:55 08:56 81 106
lickert 11:04 05:17 47 61
chindit 11:08 07:15 65 85
Heyesey 11:09 06:47 60 78
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 09:42 85 111
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 09:08 79 103
neilr neilr 11:30 09:28 82 107
Deane Short Deane Short 11:30 08:17 72 94
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 07:33 65 85
andy 11:43 11:23 97 127
miked1961 11:45 08:27 71 93
David Crooks dcrooks 11:48 08:09 69 90
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 15:39 130 171
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 11:51 96 126
chriswords 12:19 12:01 97 127
Adelaider 12:23 11:52 95 125
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 09:55 80 105
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 09:22 75 98
tilbee 12:41 12:17 96 126
Groucho 12:44 09:38 75 98
Silva 12:48 11:27 89 117
canismiser 12:54 08:46 67 88
JimboFS 13:04 07:34 57 75
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:14 08:00 60 78
EricK 13:16 08:52 66 86
Secondbass 13:25 11:54 88 115
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:26 10:00 74 97
Peponi13 13:45 12:12 88 115
Aybee 13:46 08:44 63 82
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 09:29 67 88
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:01 13:13 94 123
Semillon 14:14 09:37 67 88
Ben Staveley 14:30 09:26 65 85
johninterred Johninterred 14:34 10:17 70 92
Rinteff Rinteff 14:38 15:11 103 135
Tibthorpe 14:42 11:31 78 102
MK76 14:52 13:27 90 118
franceslc11 15:02 15:56 105 138
Looch 15:05 13:50 91 119
Finzi 15:09 16:24 108 142
JezWoolfrey 15:18 16:12 105 138
CentralLine CentralLine 15:25 10:16 66 86
andrewlake 15:48 12:31 79 103
hopkinb hopkinb 15:57 17:49 111 146
tapbarker 15:59 11:33 72 94
Jeremy S 16:37 15:18 92 121
Vannyx 16:45 17:15 102 134
rrricharrrd 16:48 18:34 110 144
Achernar 16:52 16:07 95 125
ilan 16:57 16:51 99 130
Encota 16:57 07:31 44 57
phthisis 16:59 15:32 91 119
doublecross anguswalker 17:02 09:26 55 72
ajcauk1 17:14 24:53 144 189
PGooden 18:00 13:05 72 94
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:14 20:19 111 146
Squallaby 18:28 12:46 69 90
robinh 18:41 15:58 85 111
daniel.faith 19:04 15:33 81 106
Jeremy Kenyon 19:04 14:42 77 101
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 16:18 84 110
LJCN 19:15 12:11 63 82
GMcD 19:17 23:38 122 160
John Arnold 19:17 19:58 103 135
pterodactyl 19:19 13:36 70 92
pc8 19:40 14:00 71 93
Willie F 19:40 07:43 39 51
Gallion Fish 19:43 14:13 72 94
brian.richards1 19:49 11:54 60 78
UisceTe 20:00 17:25 87 114
Curarist Curarist 20:18 17:50 87 114
Jagsfan1971 20:23 22:59 112 147
janesa 20:38 15:16 73 96
dr.shred 20:52 15:20 73 96
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 22:08 105 138
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 16:30 78 102
babka 21:01 14:49 70 92
DianeRS 21:12 17:48 83 109
Hamish.S 21:37 16:50 77 101
Solving slo mo 21:46 27:36 126 165
Rod B 21:55 22:10 101 132
Waterloo 21:56 17:57 81 106
Anomalospiza 22:23 18:31 82 107
Corymbia Corymbia 22:28 16:30 73 96
James P Special_bitter 22:31 10:05 44 57
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:32 25:29 113 148
goblin 22:49 17:42 77 101
Tudds 22:55 21:59 95 125
JayEm 23:09 24:59 107 140
mjsaunders9 23:41 14:30 61 80
infinitejest 23:48 20:34 86 113
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:14 19:05 78 102
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:29 27:01 110 144
ulaca ulaca 25:39 19:09 74 97
SlumdogEngineer 25:48 55:42 215 282
Brenk Brenk1 26:00 13:42 52 68
chris661554 26:06 21:13 81 106
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:46 22:15 83 109
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 20:50 76 100
barracuda barracuda 27:25 16:23 59 77
wimpoldo 27:36 30:00 108 142
Manveru 28:06 33:58 120 157
alwsn8 28:17 16:21 57 75
Menelaus 28:38 33:21 116 152
RogerC 28:46 31:57 111 146
Dr_Bob 28:46 22:32 78 102
Grumpole Grumpole 29:23 16:41 56 73
nekabue 29:23 24:21 82 107
laurence_da 29:47 17:44 59 77
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:04 30:16 100 131
David Luke 30:19 19:18 63 82
tyrotim tyrotim 30:36 26:55 87 114
crucihacker Crucihacker 31:33 40:00 126 165
birthday girl 32:08 26:37 82 107
CoxBurglar coxburglar 33:30 22:33 67 88
intentional rounding 33:38 20:06 59 77
Mudge Mudge 33:41 16:07 47 61
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 30:03 88 115
Rookie 34:23 27:25 79 103
Lloyd 34:47 38:51 111 146
Cryptique 34:50 33:27 96 126
koro kororareka 34:56 35:47 102 134
Maggot 34:59 35:24 101 132
boltonwanderer 35:07 26:00 74 97
Alias Noble 36:39 21:52 59 77
Shushannah 36:55 26:25 71 93
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 39:25 106 139
rv_1 37:05 29:00 78 102
starstruck starstruck_au 37:08 41:36 112 147
HanS 38:12 33:08 86 113
E Bradford E Bradford 38:39 21:37 55 72
MalcolmD 38:54 32:46 84 110
maryht 40:05 32:52 81 106
NAPASAI napasai 41:11 20:00 48 63
Steve Wood 42:50 30:50 71 93
j.stanton734 44:19 28:36 64 84
empty 45:19 42:22 93 122
Aidleys 46:20 40:36 87 114
MichaelE 46:32 34:23 73 96
MartinP MartinP1 47:43 35:41 74 97

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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