Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29279

Date 11 July 2025
Number 29279
Day of week Friday
NITCH 174
Count of ref solvers 68
Ref solvers excluded with errors 12
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29279

* 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 06:41 151 86
lili 05:54 11:48 200 114
Paul Gilbert 06:07 10:25 170 97
Diskus 06:16 13:53 221 127
cmjhutton 06:16 13:18 212 121
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 09:54 156 89
Jason 06:29 10:59 169 97
mistigris 07:25 16:45 225 129
Alexis Johansen 07:33 10:45 142 81
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 08:48 115 66
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 12:41 152 87
Umpire 08:52 17:37 198 113
asaldanha 09:16 15:44 169 97
AlanS 09:33 15:20 160 91
Ciolf 10:04 16:57 168 96
Freemers 10:43 13:45 128 73
scrabbler 10:55 21:54 200 114
lickert 11:04 14:24 130 74
chindit 11:08 28:41 257 147
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 13:11 116 66
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 22:07 193 110
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 21:47 188 108
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 17:56 149 85
fuzz 12:10 10:26 85 48
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 34:31 281 161
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 20:15 163 93
Adelaider 12:23 18:54 152 87
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 27:09 217 124
tilbee 12:41 22:37 178 102
Groucho 12:44 22:09 173 99
Silva 12:48 23:58 187 107
JimboFS 13:04 23:12 177 101
EricK 13:16 27:49 209 120
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 23:35 176 101
Secondbass 13:25 29:03 216 124
Aybee 13:46 37:58 275 158
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 23:08 165 94
Pootle Pootle 14:10 41:06 290 166
Ben Staveley 14:30 22:25 154 88
benbush 14:34 24:55 171 98
Rinteff Rinteff 14:38 30:00 205 117
Tibthorpe 14:42 26:54 182 104
Finzi 15:09 18:57 125 71
JezWoolfrey 15:18 28:45 187 107
tapbarker 15:59 38:20 239 137
LuckOfLucien 16:19 28:28 174 100
Vannyx 16:45 47:26 283 162
Encota 16:57 43:49 258 148
ilan 16:57 23:51 140 80
Crossiant 17:18 30:50 178 102
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:14 33:09 181 104
Zander 18:27 28:32 154 88
DanSolo 18:36 40:01 215 123
daniel.faith 19:04 22:03 115 66
KarenR 19:09 31:20 163 93
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 43:41 227 130
GMcD 19:17 31:59 165 94
Colin2355 19:20 37:16 192 110
pc8 19:40 31:27 159 91
UisceTe 20:00 27:32 137 78
Curarist Curarist 20:18 36:57 182 104
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 43:14 206 118
Hamish.S 21:37 50:57 235 135
Rod B 21:55 23:59 109 62
david_ch 22:16 55:00 247 141
Corymbia Corymbia 22:28 41:45 185 106
James P Special_bitter 22:31 38:25 170 97
goblin 22:49 34:25 150 86
Tudds 22:55 45:33 198 113
Aldus 23:07 31:59 138 79
JayEm 23:09 23:02 99 56
Fidelio 23:16 46:13 198 113
mjsaunders9 23:41 27:31 116 66
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:24 56:30 231 132
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 24:45 53:52 217 124
ulaca ulaca 25:39 43:24 169 97
Brenk Brenk1 26:00 38:51 149 85
chris661554 26:06 56:35 216 124
Jamie Fox 26:33 26:37 100 57
barracuda barracuda 27:25 46:14 168 96
wimpoldo 27:36 43:41 158 90
Manveru 28:06 100:02 355 204
alwsn8 28:17 25:35 90 51
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:28 29:34 103 59
Gussie 29:04 44:59 154 88
Pleasuredome Pleasuredome8 29:11 58:24 200 114
nekabue 29:23 54:58 187 107
laurence_da 29:47 59:14 198 113
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:04 55:58 186 106
David Luke 30:19 39:59 131 75
crucihacker Crucihacker 31:33 64:00 202 116
CoxBurglar coxburglar 33:30 61:54 184 105
intentional rounding 33:38 58:03 172 98
Mudge Mudge 33:41 62:46 186 106
kapietro kapietro 33:44 87:43 260 149
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 37:03 109 62
Cryptique 34:50 38:02 109 62
koro kororareka 34:56 53:50 154 88
boltonwanderer 35:07 75:00 213 122
hectorslave 36:14 57:13 157 90
Shushannah 36:55 58:00 157 90
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 66:20 179 102
rv_1 37:05 48:10 129 74
E Bradford E Bradford 38:39 70:12 181 104
Steve Wood 42:50 71:37 167 95
empty 45:19 59:29 131 75
MartinP MartinP1 47:43 83:32 175 100

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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