Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5173

Date 20 July 2025
Number 5173
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 116
Count of ref solvers 39
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5173

* 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
Paul Gilbert 06:00 05:44 95 81
verlaine Verlaine 06:14 10:12 163 140
lili 06:20 05:41 89 76
Jason 06:53 06:42 97 83
mistigris 07:15 09:06 125 107
aphis99 aphis99 07:38 07:12 94 81
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:18 10:19 124 106
Umpire 09:02 10:53 120 103
markdobell 09:45 09:48 100 86
AlanS 09:56 15:57 160 137
Kinghedger 10:47 14:21 133 114
scrabbler 11:02 09:53 89 76
SimonAnthony 11:04 18:15 164 141
Freemers 11:11 15:34 139 119
chindit 11:24 17:22 152 131
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:27 12:21 107 92
keriothe_ keriothe 11:29 13:24 116 100
miked1961 11:46 16:42 141 121
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:50 19:51 167 143
fuzz 11:58 15:01 125 107
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:01 20:29 170 146
Adelaider 12:25 12:25 100 86
chriswords 12:29 12:28 99 85
Sheapey Sheapey 12:46 21:25 167 143
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:50 16:38 129 111
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:21 15:33 116 100
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:24 19:46 147 126
tilbee 13:27 16:40 123 106
Stavros Stavrolex 13:52 15:59 115 99
LouWeed LouWeed 14:18 19:55 139 119
Finzi 15:00 12:17 81 69
Looch 15:06 15:10 100 86
Rinteff Rinteff 15:12 14:57 98 84
franceslc11 15:13 20:49 136 117
Ben Staveley 15:19 16:25 107 92
andrewlake 15:51 20:24 128 110
tapbarker 16:04 21:16 132 113
Valance 16:45 17:33 104 89
ajcauk1 16:58 19:35 115 99
Encota 17:25 20:24 117 100
Mike C 17:46 17:27 98 84
Zander 18:34 20:55 112 96
DanSolo 18:34 17:50 96 82
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:57 12:26 65 56
KarenR 19:50 20:35 103 88
Curarist Curarist 20:24 17:55 87 75
JayEm 22:10 11:54 53 45
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 23:18 31:09 133 114
ratterz 25:10 17:49 70 60
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:26 24:12 79 68
Mudge Mudge 34:38 15:55 45 38

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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