Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29276

Date 08 July 2025
Number 29276
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 70
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 4
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29276

* Requires access to the Times Crossword Club

Detailed solving results

 

If you would like to help cover the costs of running the SNITCH site, please "buy me a coffee".

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
mohn mohn2 04:25 04:07 93 132
lili 05:54 04:37 78 111
Magoo 05:56 04:41 78 111
cmjhutton 06:16 06:30 103 147
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 05:00 78 111
Jason 06:29 04:46 73 104
mistigris 07:25 05:07 68 97
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 05:12 67 95
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 05:59 71 101
boulemiche 08:43 07:32 86 122
asaldanha 09:16 05:51 63 90
markdobell 09:43 07:48 80 114
Ciolf 10:04 07:18 72 102
SimonAnthony 10:18 08:56 86 122
Kinghedger 10:39 07:25 69 98
Freemers 10:43 09:05 84 120
scrabbler 10:55 08:53 81 115
chindit 11:08 07:54 70 100
Heyesey 11:09 06:43 60 85
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 07:55 70 100
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 06:51 59 84
neilr neilr 11:30 09:44 84 120
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 09:40 83 118
andy 11:43 08:44 74 105
miked1961 11:45 08:00 68 97
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 08:24 68 97
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 07:35 61 87
Adelaider 12:23 11:34 93 132
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 08:03 64 91
tilbee 12:41 09:48 77 110
Groucho 12:44 09:08 71 101
Silva 12:48 09:01 70 100
canismiser 12:54 09:56 77 110
d.middleton 13:13 12:12 92 131
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:14 10:16 77 110
EricK 13:16 07:32 56 80
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 09:14 69 98
Secondbass 13:25 08:20 62 88
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:26 13:43 102 145
Aybee 13:46 08:35 62 88
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:01 11:07 79 112
Pootle Pootle 14:10 11:12 79 112
Riche Riche 14:30 12:42 87 124
Ben Staveley 14:30 12:00 82 117
Tibthorpe 14:42 11:52 80 114
MK76 14:52 11:42 78 111
DunPangolin 14:56 18:51 126 180
Finzi 15:09 13:43 90 128
whichcraft 15:12 10:42 70 100
chriswestontour Chris West 15:17 13:59 91 130
cdb_100 15:20 07:19 47 67
CentralLine CentralLine 15:25 11:06 72 102
andrewlake 15:48 12:07 76 108
tapbarker 15:59 12:56 80 114
robertL 16:01 15:30 96 137
LuckOfLucien 16:19 10:25 63 90
Jeremy S 16:37 16:01 96 137
Vannyx 16:45 11:18 67 95
rrricharrrd 16:48 11:34 68 97
Achernar 16:52 20:30 121 172
ilan 16:57 14:11 83 118
Encota 16:57 14:37 86 122
phthisis 16:59 10:33 62 88
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:14 13:35 74 105
Foozler 18:32 15:13 82 117
Jeremy Kenyon 19:04 18:57 99 141
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 11:04 57 81
LJCN 19:15 14:23 74 105
GMcD 19:17 12:14 63 90
John Arnold 19:17 15:16 79 112
pterodactyl 19:19 17:58 93 132
Colin2355 19:20 12:33 64 91
Astonvilla.1 19:23 15:46 81 115
pc8 19:40 11:31 58 82
Gallion Fish 19:43 12:02 61 87
UisceTe 20:00 16:51 84 120
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:11 12:11 60 85
Nangle 20:39 15:02 72 102
dr.shred 20:52 20:00 95 135
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 15:47 75 107
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 11:59 57 81
george.garlick 20:58 20:23 97 138
Hamish.S 21:37 15:12 70 100
Rod B 21:55 19:26 88 125
Waterloo 21:56 17:11 78 111
Rosey6 22:17 15:33 69 98
Anomalospiza 22:23 15:16 68 97
James P Special_bitter 22:31 10:39 47 67
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:32 21:50 96 137
goblin 22:49 15:10 66 94
Tudds 22:55 14:45 64 91
JayEm 23:09 09:01 38 54
steve.laverock 23:20 16:34 71 101
mjsaunders9 23:41 15:06 63 90
infinitejest 23:48 15:52 66 94
martinr486 24:13 39:17 162 231
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:14 18:34 76 108
Crippens1 24:47 16:28 66 94
medodd 24:54 20:06 80 114
ulaca ulaca 25:39 26:11 102 145
SlumdogEngineer 25:48 18:58 73 104
chris661554 26:06 18:21 70 100
symbenall2 26:11 20:30 78 111
Jamie Fox 26:33 10:55 41 58
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:46 22:03 82 117
Yatton50 26:47 24:21 90 128
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 17:02 62 88
Word Psmith wordpsmith 27:30 23:13 84 120
Manveru 28:06 15:29 55 78
alwsn8 28:17 12:33 44 62
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:28 16:01 56 80
Menelaus 28:38 24:27 85 121
Dr_Bob 28:46 24:01 83 118
nekabue 29:23 20:07 68 97
Grumpole Grumpole 29:23 22:42 77 110
laurence_da 29:47 19:34 65 92
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:04 39:33 131 187
David Luke 30:19 17:08 56 80
tyrotim tyrotim 30:36 24:24 79 112
birthday girl 32:08 29:48 92 131
alistair.boere 32:09 21:49 67 95
BertieVII 32:20 21:31 66 94
CoxBurglar coxburglar 33:30 31:29 93 132
intentional rounding 33:38 24:59 74 105
Mudge Mudge 33:41 22:39 67 95
kapietro kapietro 33:44 29:48 88 125
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 23:43 70 100
Lloyd 34:47 42:16 121 172
Cryptique 34:50 36:31 104 148
koro kororareka 34:56 22:30 64 91
boltonwanderer 35:07 29:00 82 117
JoeyC 35:14 12:51 36 51
dosbarth 35:35 30:38 86 122
Shushannah 36:55 22:39 61 87
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 20:27 55 78
rv_1 37:05 21:54 59 84
starstruck starstruck_au 37:08 25:38 69 98
HanS 38:12 35:05 91 130
E Bradford E Bradford 38:39 31:19 81 115
JGP 38:44 23:42 61 87
maryht 40:05 30:27 75 107
NAPASAI napasai 41:11 103:40 251 358
Steve Wood 42:50 27:07 63 90
empty 45:19 36:09 79 112
Aidleys 46:20 43:13 93 132
MichaelE 46:32 24:22 52 74

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back