Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29285

Date 18 July 2025
Number 29285
Day of week Friday
NITCH 126
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29285

* 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
lili 05:54 08:07 137 108
cmjhutton 06:16 07:24 118 93
Diskus 06:16 07:11 114 90
verlaine Verlaine 06:20 05:17 83 65
Jason 06:29 08:32 131 103
hilarym 06:56 08:52 127 100
mistigris 07:25 09:05 122 96
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 07:39 100 79
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:19 11:50 142 112
Umpire 08:52 10:54 122 96
asaldanha 09:16 09:37 103 81
markdobell 09:43 11:55 122 96
Ciolf 10:04 13:22 132 104
SimonAnthony 10:18 17:37 171 135
Kinghedger 10:39 13:41 128 101
Freemers 10:43 11:37 108 85
scrabbler 10:55 15:39 143 113
lickert 11:04 15:40 141 111
chindit 11:08 22:08 198 157
keriothe_ keriothe 11:17 14:20 127 100
Deane Short Deane Short 11:30 25:07 218 173
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:33 13:24 116 92
Morphosis 11:36 17:20 149 118
David Crooks dcrooks 11:48 15:19 129 102
Golvellius 11:55 13:39 114 90
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 11:59 14:52 124 98
fuzz 12:10 11:06 91 72
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:15 17:20 141 111
chriswords 12:19 15:41 127 100
Sheapey Sheapey 12:23 16:43 134 106
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:28 19:35 157 124
Groucho 12:44 18:11 142 112
EricK 13:16 17:22 130 103
Stavros Stavrolex 13:21 15:03 112 88
Aybee 13:46 18:34 134 106
LouWeed LouWeed 14:00 22:12 158 125
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:01 16:09 115 91
Pootle Pootle 14:10 23:01 162 128
Semillon 14:14 16:44 117 92
Ben Staveley 14:30 21:32 148 117
benbush 14:34 18:16 125 99
grape 14:35 20:34 141 111
Rinteff Rinteff 14:38 24:35 167 132
Tibthorpe 14:42 16:45 113 89
DunPangolin 14:56 17:31 117 92
franceslc11 15:02 20:44 137 108
Looch 15:05 15:34 103 81
Finzi 15:09 17:12 113 89
CentralLine CentralLine 15:25 16:48 108 85
andrewlake 15:48 19:04 120 95
tapbarker 15:59 23:00 143 113
robertL 16:01 18:00 112 88
LuckOfLucien 16:19 25:30 156 123
rrricharrrd 16:48 25:25 151 119
Valance 16:55 24:49 146 115
ilan 16:57 17:53 105 83
Encota 16:57 31:27 185 146
Craven 17:49 26:04 146 115
David Bourne 17:57 26:54 149 118
PGooden 18:00 31:27 174 138
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:14 24:49 136 107
Zander 18:27 28:05 152 120
DanSolo 18:36 19:54 106 84
robinh 18:41 22:54 122 96
hugh schofield Leskoffer 19:03 29:23 154 122
daniel.faith 19:04 22:02 115 91
Jeremy Kenyon 19:04 17:20 90 71
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:13 25:01 130 103
LJCN 19:15 35:29 184 146
John Arnold 19:17 22:53 118 93
GMcD 19:17 35:57 186 147
pterodactyl 19:19 22:13 115 91
pc8 19:40 27:24 139 110
Willie F 19:40 36:50 187 148
Curarist Curarist 20:18 29:00 142 112
The Caffeine Kid 20:57 30:49 147 116
Zabadak3 Zabadak 20:57 24:44 118 93
george.garlick 20:58 24:26 116 92
valerian1967 21:01 18:55 90 71
DianeRS 21:12 34:19 161 127
Dvynys dvynys 21:20 27:11 127 100
tony the butcher montana 21:30 34:03 158 125
Hamish.S 21:37 33:11 153 121
david_ch 22:16 24:50 111 88
Anomalospiza 22:23 23:38 105 83
Corymbia Corymbia 22:28 32:07 142 112
James P Special_bitter 22:31 29:26 130 103
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:32 27:41 122 96
Aldus 23:07 35:56 155 123
JayEm 23:09 28:09 121 96
Fidelio 23:16 32:35 140 111
mjsaunders9 23:41 25:24 107 84
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:14 33:11 136 107
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:24 38:35 158 125
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 24:29 26:58 110 87
chris661554 26:06 46:07 176 139
Yatton50 26:47 45:20 169 134
ratterz 26:47 21:43 81 64
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 28:32 105 83
barracuda barracuda 27:25 38:45 141 111
wimpoldo 27:36 43:58 159 126
Manveru 28:06 33:36 119 94
alwsn8 28:17 24:52 87 69
annikins 28:25 35:24 124 98
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:28 97:47 343 272
RogerC 28:46 67:03 233 184
Gussie 29:04 31:35 108 85
laurence_da 29:47 45:39 153 121
intentional rounding 33:38 33:23 99 78
Mudge Mudge 33:41 42:13 125 99
The Real Steve Snackman 33:47 25:43 76 60
Birdingbob 34:07 61:06 179 142
SK42 36:23 41:09 113 89
Shushannah 36:55 60:35 164 130
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 36:57 39:29 106 84
rv_1 37:05 71:48 193 153
starstruck starstruck_au 37:08 46:16 124 98
E Bradford E Bradford 38:39 43:59 113 89
Jambo20 42:29 36:34 86 68
baronrob 43:14 62:26 144 114
empty 45:19 48:03 106 84
MichaelE 46:32 71:27 153 121
MartinP MartinP1 47:43 68:21 143 113

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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