Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29277

Date 09 July 2025
Number 29277
Day of week Wednesday
NITCH 73
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 3
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29277

* 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
mohn mohn2 04:25 03:33 80 109
lili 05:54 05:07 86 117
Magoo 05:56 04:25 74 101
Paul Gilbert 06:07 03:49 62 84
Diskus 06:16 04:57 78 106
cmjhutton 06:16 04:52 77 105
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 03:41 58 79
Jason 06:29 04:51 74 101
hilarym 06:56 05:55 85 116
mistigris 07:25 05:24 72 98
Alexis Johansen 07:33 06:02 79 108
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 04:28 58 79
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 08:10 98 134
asaldanha 09:16 08:05 87 119
AlanS 09:33 07:14 75 102
glheard glh 09:39 07:09 74 101
markdobell 09:43 06:07 62 84
Ciolf 10:04 10:19 102 139
SimonAnthony 10:18 09:13 89 121
Kinghedger 10:39 08:24 78 106
Freemers 10:43 13:17 123 168
toots 10:51 10:29 96 131
scrabbler 10:55 08:46 80 109
chindit 11:08 07:40 68 93
Heyesey 11:09 08:50 79 108
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 08:28 75 102
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 09:07 79 108
neilr neilr 11:30 09:00 78 106
Deane Short Deane Short 11:30 08:04 70 95
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 08:56 77 105
Morphosis 11:36 09:24 81 110
andy 11:43 10:45 91 124
miked1961 11:45 07:05 60 82
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 07:25 61 83
fuzz 12:10 12:45 104 142
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 09:44 79 108
aphasic 12:18 12:07 98 134
chriswords 12:19 08:39 70 95
Adelaider 12:23 09:59 80 109
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 07:56 64 87
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 07:39 61 83
John Walsh 12:39 15:29 122 167
tilbee 12:41 08:42 68 93
Groucho 12:44 09:44 76 104
Silva 12:48 10:15 80 109
canismiser 12:54 15:12 117 160
d.middleton 13:13 14:53 112 153
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:14 10:24 78 106
EricK 13:16 12:35 94 128
Paul Bacon 13:17 13:15 99 135
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 07:12 53 72
Secondbass 13:25 09:16 69 94
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:26 16:45 124 169
Aybee 13:46 14:27 104 142
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 14:06 100 136
Pootle Pootle 14:10 10:59 77 105
Semillon 14:14 09:36 67 91
Ben Staveley 14:30 11:12 77 105
Riche Riche 14:30 12:01 82 112
johninterred Johninterred 14:34 10:40 73 100
benbush 14:34 09:51 67 91
Rinteff Rinteff 14:38 12:48 87 119
Tibthorpe 14:42 12:51 87 119
franceslc11 15:02 13:33 90 123
Looch 15:05 10:54 72 98
Finzi 15:09 10:06 66 90
whichcraft 15:12 10:16 67 91
JezWoolfrey 15:18 12:37 82 112
julian_w 15:19 15:10 99 135
cdb_100 15:20 09:58 65 89
CentralLine CentralLine 15:25 10:26 67 91
andrewlake 15:48 12:50 81 110
myles 15:56 17:29 109 149
LuckOfLucien 16:19 14:26 88 120
Jeremy S 16:37 20:36 123 168
rrricharrrd 16:48 11:41 69 94
Achernar 16:52 18:42 110 150
Valance 16:55 13:18 78 106
Encota 16:57 13:58 82 112
ilan 16:57 12:19 72 98
phthisis 16:59 13:51 81 110
doublecross anguswalker 17:02 08:43 51 69
ajcauk1 17:14 11:35 67 91
Crossiant 17:18 12:19 71 97
SeamusX 17:19 24:10 139 190
tds 17:41 09:57 56 76
PGooden 18:00 12:33 69 94
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:14 15:57 87 119
Zander 18:27 13:45 74 101
Squallaby 18:28 13:41 74 101
Foozler 18:32 13:07 70 95
DanSolo 18:36 12:52 69 94
Jeremy Kenyon 19:04 16:52 88 120
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 14:07 73 100
LJCN 19:15 13:02 67 91
John Arnold 19:17 15:58 82 112
GMcD 19:17 13:33 70 95
pterodactyl 19:19 20:32 106 145
Colin2355 19:20 12:17 63 86
pc8 19:40 11:38 59 80
Gallion Fish 19:43 22:52 115 157
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:11 25:24 125 171
Curarist Curarist 20:18 12:40 62 84
janesa 20:38 16:11 78 106
Nangle 20:39 15:46 76 104
Rembleforth 20:52 22:05 105 143
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 22:25 107 146
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 16:23 78 106
jimancliffe 21:14 23:45 111 152
Dvynys dvynys 21:20 11:10 52 71
tony the butcher montana 21:30 19:38 91 124
Hamish.S 21:37 16:25 75 102
Solving slo mo 21:46 17:36 80 109
Waterloo 21:56 18:54 86 117
david_ch 22:16 19:05 85 116
Grestyman Grestyman 22:20 15:18 68 93
Anomalospiza 22:23 21:17 95 130
James P Special_bitter 22:31 15:47 70 95
goblin 22:49 16:59 74 101
Tudds 22:55 18:00 78 106
Aldus 23:07 14:21 62 84
JayEm 23:09 15:41 67 91
Fidelio 23:16 28:39 123 168
mjsaunders9 23:41 09:42 40 54
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:45 19:44 79 108
Crippens1 24:47 19:46 79 108
medodd 24:54 28:09 113 154
1234 25:00 14:32 58 79
ulaca ulaca 25:39 19:18 75 102
Brenk Brenk1 26:00 21:18 81 110
chris661554 26:06 16:30 63 86
Jamie Fox 26:33 21:27 80 109
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:46 15:34 58 79
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 16:05 59 80
barracuda barracuda 27:25 19:08 69 94
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:52 34:00 122 167
Manveru 28:06 24:52 88 120
alwsn8 28:17 20:37 72 98
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:28 21:23 75 102
Menelaus 28:38 30:05 105 143
Dr_Bob 28:46 29:43 103 141
f4rch 29:02 13:27 46 63
Grumpole Grumpole 29:23 18:50 64 87
nekabue 29:23 21:41 73 100
laurence_da 29:47 26:37 89 121
tyrotim tyrotim 30:36 25:20 82 112
simjt simjt 31:06 30:02 96 131
birthday girl 32:08 35:55 111 152
sagesse sagesse 32:14 25:03 77 105
intentional rounding 33:38 21:57 65 89
Mudge Mudge 33:41 19:48 58 79
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 27:37 81 110
Birdingbob 34:07 26:15 76 104
Rookie 34:23 28:45 83 113
Lloyd 34:47 43:10 124 169
Cryptique 34:50 40:08 115 157
koro kororareka 34:56 27:32 78 106
Bossbutbee 34:56 31:08 89 121
boltonwanderer 35:07 34:00 96 131
JoeyC 35:14 16:03 45 61
dosbarth 35:35 40:28 113 154
Alias Noble 36:39 21:53 59 80
Shushannah 36:55 31:39 85 116
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 26:34 71 97
rv_1 37:05 29:06 78 106
starstruck starstruck_au 37:08 26:24 71 97
E Bradford E Bradford 38:39 34:46 89 121
JGP 38:44 58:59 152 208
maryht 40:05 38:47 96 131
Steve Wood 42:50 29:38 69 94
empty 45:19 28:51 63 86
MichaelE 46:32 28:21 60 82
kjbr 53:13 39:25 74 101
NJP1 54:25 49:24 90 123

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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