Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29278

Date 10 July 2025
Number 29278
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 106
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29278

* 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
Magoo 05:56 06:34 110 103
Paul Gilbert 06:07 05:40 92 86
Diskus 06:16 06:57 110 103
cmjhutton 06:16 05:08 81 76
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 06:53 108 101
Jason 06:29 13:36 209 197
mistigris 07:25 05:50 78 73
Alexis Johansen 07:33 06:54 91 85
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 10:31 137 129
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 09:09 110 103
Umpire 08:52 13:34 153 144
asaldanha 09:16 10:19 111 104
AlanS 09:33 11:37 121 114
markdobell 09:43 12:23 127 119
Ciolf 10:04 12:05 120 113
SimonAnthony 10:18 13:52 134 126
Kinghedger 10:39 11:25 107 100
Freemers 10:43 12:13 113 106
scrabbler 10:55 11:57 109 102
lickert 11:04 10:31 95 89
Heyesey 11:09 14:43 131 123
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 08:22 74 69
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 12:05 105 99
andy 11:43 14:21 122 115
miked1961 11:45 12:28 106 100
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 11:46 98 92
fuzz 12:10 13:14 108 101
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 15:39 127 119
chriswords 12:19 12:16 99 93
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 10:41 86 81
tilbee 12:41 14:34 114 107
Groucho 12:44 16:18 128 120
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:14 11:27 86 81
EricK 13:16 12:30 94 88
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 22:56 171 161
Secondbass 13:25 12:44 94 88
Aybee 13:46 14:31 105 99
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 18:10 129 121
Pootle Pootle 14:10 27:20 192 181
Semillon 14:14 13:06 92 86
Ben Staveley 14:30 15:23 106 100
benbush 14:34 20:31 140 132
Rinteff Rinteff 14:38 22:05 150 141
Carol 14:51 17:19 116 109
franceslc11 15:02 11:49 78 73
Looch 15:05 13:24 88 83
Finzi 15:09 14:03 92 86
whichcraft 15:12 23:47 156 147
JezWoolfrey 15:18 16:13 105 99
julian_w 15:19 17:25 113 106
CentralLine CentralLine 15:25 15:09 98 92
andrewlake 15:48 17:02 107 100
tapbarker 15:59 15:13 95 89
LuckOfLucien 16:19 24:03 147 138
Vannyx 16:45 17:33 104 98
Valance 16:55 21:24 126 118
ilan 16:57 16:41 98 92
Encota 16:57 15:58 94 88
phthisis 16:59 18:11 107 100
doublecross anguswalker 17:02 12:48 75 70
Crossiant 17:18 26:41 154 145
PGooden 18:00 19:49 110 103
Zander 18:27 12:46 69 65
robinh 18:41 21:11 113 106
Upfisher 18:53 19:16 102 96
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 19:27 101 95
LJCN 19:15 17:38 91 85
John Arnold 19:17 20:34 106 100
GMcD 19:17 24:25 126 118
Colin2355 19:20 18:18 94 88
Astonvilla.1 19:23 74:32 384 362
Willie F 19:40 18:46 95 89
Curarist Curarist 20:18 22:29 110 103
janesa 20:38 25:41 124 116
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 18:33 88 83
george.garlick 20:58 27:19 130 122
babka 21:01 24:24 116 109
rjhinde61 21:19 22:22 104 98
Hamish.S 21:37 45:26 210 198
goblin 22:49 27:05 118 111
JayEm 23:09 11:05 47 44
mjsaunders9 23:41 38:58 164 154
infinitejest 23:48 48:37 204 192
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:29 48:13 196 184
Crippens1 24:47 23:19 94 88
medodd 24:54 30:15 121 114
ulaca ulaca 25:39 39:02 152 143
chris661554 26:06 21:52 83 78
Edprof 26:22 26:41 101 95
barracuda barracuda 27:25 27:02 98 92
wimpoldo 27:36 33:57 123 116
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 27:52 43:39 156 147
Manveru 28:06 35:52 127 119
alwsn8 28:17 21:47 77 72
nekabue 29:23 26:42 90 84
laurence_da 29:47 50:21 169 159
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:04 31:42 105 99
David Luke 30:19 28:16 93 87
simjt simjt 31:06 33:23 107 100
birthday girl 32:08 49:10 153 144
Jeeves 33:00 27:29 83 78
intentional rounding 33:38 39:04 116 109
kapietro kapietro 33:44 47:34 141 133
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 43:23 128 120
Rookie 34:23 29:04 84 79
Cryptique 34:50 34:12 98 92
koro kororareka 34:56 35:36 101 95
Bossbutbee 34:56 32:19 92 86
Maggot 34:59 43:37 124 116
boltonwanderer 35:07 27:00 76 71
JoeyC 35:14 25:14 71 66
hectorslave 36:14 37:33 103 97
SK42 36:23 32:36 89 83
Alias Noble 36:39 29:22 80 75
Shushannah 36:55 46:18 125 117
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 41:10 111 104
MalcolmD 38:54 37:03 95 89
maryht 40:05 38:38 96 90
NAPASAI napasai 41:11 25:01 60 56
Steve Wood 42:50 43:07 100 94
j.stanton734 44:19 27:26 61 57
empty 45:19 46:14 102 96
MichaelE 46:32 55:02 118 111
MartinP MartinP1 47:43 48:31 101 95
kjbr 53:13 57:31 108 101

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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