Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29281

Date 14 July 2025
Number 29281
Day of week Monday
NITCH 88
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 14
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29281

* 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 04:03 91 103
Nathan Panning 05:49 05:01 86 97
lili 05:54 04:37 78 88
Paul Gilbert 06:07 04:06 67 76
Diskus 06:16 06:13 99 112
cmjhutton 06:16 06:29 103 117
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 04:57 78 88
Jason 06:29 04:30 69 78
mistigris 07:25 05:13 70 79
Alexis Johansen 07:33 11:22 150 170
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 05:17 69 78
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 08:29 102 115
Umpire 08:52 08:12 92 104
asaldanha 09:16 06:24 69 78
AlanS 09:33 09:39 101 114
glheard glh 09:39 10:56 113 128
markdobell 09:43 08:58 92 104
Ciolf 10:04 07:47 77 87
SimonAnthony 10:18 18:40 181 205
Kinghedger 10:39 08:43 81 92
Freemers 10:43 11:06 103 117
toots 10:51 14:32 133 151
scrabbler 10:55 11:11 102 115
lickert 11:04 10:36 95 107
Heyesey 11:09 08:29 76 86
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:26 11:11 97 110
neilr neilr 11:30 12:12 106 120
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 13:36 117 132
miked1961 11:45 11:12 95 107
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 11:45 98 111
fuzz 12:10 11:30 94 106
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 09:33 77 87
aphasic 12:18 10:46 87 98
chriswords 12:19 08:33 69 78
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 15:59 129 146
Adelaider 12:23 10:41 86 97
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 12:27 99 112
Groucho 12:44 12:49 100 113
JimboFS 13:04 16:59 129 146
EricK 13:16 10:25 78 88
Paul Bacon 13:17 15:40 117 132
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 13:38 102 115
Secondbass 13:25 12:56 96 109
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:26 14:19 106 120
Aybee 13:46 10:17 74 84
alexh 14:00 16:00 114 129
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 12:18 87 98
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:01 12:12 87 98
Pootle Pootle 14:10 12:41 89 101
Semillon 14:14 13:11 92 104
TB22 14:16 30:20 212 240
Ben Staveley 14:30 13:05 90 102
johninterred Johninterred 14:34 13:55 95 107
Tibthorpe 14:42 13:11 89 101
Carol 14:51 13:56 93 105
DunPangolin 14:56 14:46 98 111
franceslc11 15:02 11:59 79 89
Looch 15:05 13:08 87 98
whichcraft 15:12 10:25 68 77
cdb_100 15:20 10:47 70 79
CentralLine CentralLine 15:25 12:55 83 94
andrewlake 15:48 14:47 93 105
tapbarker 15:59 20:18 127 144
robertL 16:01 19:02 118 134
Jeremy S 16:37 28:20 170 193
rrricharrrd 16:48 14:47 87 98
Achernar 16:52 23:23 138 156
Valance 16:55 18:31 109 123
Encota 16:57 20:00 117 132
ilan 16:57 12:02 70 79
phthisis 16:59 17:05 100 113
doublecross anguswalker 17:02 16:16 95 107
Crossiant 17:18 13:40 78 88
PGooden 18:00 15:53 88 100
earlylight 18:04 16:56 93 105
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:14 17:43 97 110
KET 18:16 20:38 112 127
Mike C 18:22 12:49 69 78
Zander 18:27 17:05 92 104
Squallaby 18:28 18:20 99 112
robinh 18:41 18:34 99 112
hugh schofield Leskoffer 19:03 18:00 94 106
daniel.faith 19:04 15:32 81 92
Jeremy Kenyon 19:04 18:39 97 110
KarenR 19:09 13:58 72 81
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 26:12 136 154
LJCN 19:15 17:17 89 101
GMcD 19:17 19:37 101 114
Colin2355 19:20 20:39 106 120
uvofiz 19:33 19:13 98 111
Willie F 19:40 24:48 126 143
pc8 19:40 26:18 133 151
Gallion Fish 19:43 25:53 131 148
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:11 15:51 78 88
Curarist Curarist 20:18 20:05 98 111
Jagsfan1971 20:23 28:02 137 155
Nangle 20:39 23:14 112 127
Rembleforth 20:52 24:59 119 135
george.garlick 20:58 19:00 90 102
valerian1967 21:01 25:55 123 139
DianeRS 21:12 20:48 98 111
Hamish.S 21:37 27:02 125 142
Rod B 21:55 18:15 83 94
david_ch 22:16 23:15 104 118
James P Special_bitter 22:31 14:17 63 71
Tudds 22:55 27:14 118 134
JayEm 23:09 08:10 35 39
mjsaunders9 23:41 24:40 104 118
infinitejest 23:48 21:56 92 104
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:14 35:16 145 164
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:24 16:49 68 77
Crippens1 24:47 32:09 129 146
ulaca ulaca 25:39 31:57 124 140
chris661554 26:06 28:43 110 125
Jamie Fox 26:33 47:23 178 202
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:46 27:34 102 115
Word Psmith wordpsmith 27:30 26:29 96 109
wimpoldo 27:36 34:13 123 139
Manveru 28:06 24:42 87 98
alwsn8 28:17 17:18 61 69
f4rch 29:02 16:37 57 64
nekabue 29:23 38:11 129 146
laurence_da 29:47 25:38 86 97
David Luke 30:19 20:11 66 75
tyrotim tyrotim 30:36 52:23 171 194
birthday girl 32:08 49:05 152 172
BertieVII 32:20 40:06 124 140
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 23:33 69 78
gothick gothick 33:53 34:00 100 113
Bossbutbee 34:56 20:49 59 67
Maggot 34:59 46:45 133 151
clivejharlow 36:18 39:02 107 121
Peloton 36:47 26:48 72 81
Shushannah 36:55 39:59 108 122
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 43:35 117 132
rv_1 37:05 42:52 115 130
starstruck starstruck_au 37:08 36:20 97 110
Dr Dolittle 39:05 23:53 61 69
maryht 40:05 44:41 111 126
NAPASAI napasai 41:11 31:43 77 87
Steve Wood 42:50 38:11 89 101
Aidleys 46:20 57:29 124 140
MartinP MartinP1 47:43 42:27 88 100

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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