Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29297

Date 01 August 2025
Number 29297
Day of week Friday
NITCH 117
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 11
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29297

* Requires access to the Times Crossword Club

Detailed solving results

 

If you would like to help cover the costs of running the SNITCH site, please "buy me a coffee".

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 04:27 03:50 86 73
Magoo 05:48 09:44 167 142
Nathan Panning 05:48 08:12 141 120
verlaine Verlaine 06:14 08:00 128 109
lili 06:20 07:21 116 99
Jason 06:53 07:59 115 98
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:18 12:04 145 123
glheard glh 09:06 11:55 130 111
asaldanha 09:11 16:38 181 154
markdobell 09:45 12:24 127 108
Ciolf 10:07 13:33 133 113
Kinghedger 10:47 10:54 101 86
LoreleiBill 11:00 08:56 81 69
scrabbler 11:02 17:50 161 137
lickert 11:07 14:28 130 111
neilr neilr 11:14 13:48 122 104
chindit 11:24 10:06 88 75
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:27 16:41 145 123
keriothe_ keriothe 11:29 10:41 93 79
Morphosis 11:40 16:17 139 118
David Crooks dcrooks 11:40 11:56 102 87
miked1961 11:46 15:35 132 112
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:50 09:42 81 69
fuzz 11:58 10:09 84 71
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:01 13:20 110 94
aphasic 12:35 17:59 142 121
Sheapey Sheapey 12:46 12:02 94 80
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:50 18:16 142 121
canismiser 12:53 16:29 127 108
Silva 13:02 18:51 144 123
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:21 16:17 121 103
EricK 13:23 15:21 114 97
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:23 19:27 145 123
tilbee 13:27 16:21 121 103
Stavros Stavrolex 13:52 21:49 157 134
alexh 13:55 19:23 139 118
Riche Riche 13:55 20:32 147 125
Eddddddd 14:02 12:07 86 73
Semillon 14:16 13:15 92 78
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:24 16:40 115 98
Tibthorpe 14:25 15:42 108 92
Aybee 14:30 14:29 99 84
Pootle Pootle 14:51 24:21 163 139
CentralLine CentralLine 14:52 23:27 157 134
Finzi 15:00 18:34 123 105
benbush 15:01 15:40 104 88
Looch 15:06 15:34 103 88
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:18 19:55 130 111
julian_w 15:30 18:31 119 101
cdb_100 15:38 12:20 78 66
robertL 15:38 23:38 151 129
andrewlake 15:51 21:09 133 113
RobR RobR 15:55 18:30 116 99
hopkinb hopkinb 16:01 29:00 181 154
tapbarker 16:04 25:00 155 132
tds 16:23 22:41 138 117
phthisis 16:40 21:15 127 108
Vannyx 16:51 27:53 165 141
rrricharrrd 17:17 26:17 152 129
Crossiant 17:34 17:59 102 87
PGooden 18:00 04:45 26 22
David Bourne 18:10 23:37 130 111
Squallaby 18:27 18:57 102 87
Jeremy Kenyon 18:30 20:43 111 94
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:55 26:14 138 117
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:57 21:57 115 98
robinh 19:06 19:51 103 88
daniel.faith 19:12 26:21 137 117
Colin2355 19:34 30:23 155 132
Gallion Fish 20:01 66:30 332 283
Willie F 20:13 16:01 79 67
The Caffeine Kid 20:19 42:57 211 180
valerian1967 20:21 23:42 116 99
pc8 20:21 16:17 80 68
Curarist Curarist 20:24 21:00 102 87
george.garlick 20:31 27:40 134 114
Nangle 20:33 29:37 144 123
janesa 20:47 26:03 125 106
Waterloo 20:49 34:04 163 139
gsriordan52 20:57 23:32 112 95
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:00 23:41 112 95
Aldus 21:34 26:02 120 102
Anomalospiza 21:45 22:25 103 88
James P Special_bitter 21:46 25:51 118 100
Rod B 21:55 29:42 135 115
Rembleforth 22:06 34:36 156 133
JayEm 22:10 32:22 146 124
Corymbia Corymbia 22:29 19:52 88 75
Hamish.S 22:48 80:05 351 300
goblin 23:01 29:15 127 108
1234 23:09 26:05 112 95
infinitejest 23:17 44:10 189 161
En Cee 23:39 38:00 160 136
alwsn8 23:48 24:12 101 86
mjsaunders9 23:53 19:59 83 70
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:59 40:47 170 145
Fidelio 24:20 32:07 131 111
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:26 29:11 119 101
symbenall2 25:00 34:34 138 117
ulaca ulaca 25:31 34:26 134 114
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:19 34:26 130 111
Brenk Brenk1 26:27 41:00 155 132
Yatton50 26:40 27:41 103 88
Mike Harper Mike Harper 26:43 32:06 120 102
crosswordian 26:43 24:41 92 78
chris661554 27:03 31:10 115 98
raincloud 27:26 45:43 166 141
Jamie Fox 27:52 38:20 137 117
Dr_Bob 28:27 44:33 156 133
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:33 24:26 85 72
gbestanley 28:45 38:38 134 114
Manveru 29:18 37:27 127 108
David Luke 29:32 40:00 135 115
nekabue 29:50 28:01 93 79
Gussie 29:57 27:07 90 76
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:26 34:12 112 95
laurence_da 30:38 28:01 91 77
intentional rounding 31:53 33:10 104 88
BertieVII 32:06 31:04 96 82
The Real Steve Snackman 33:06 30:27 91 77
JoeyC 34:29 27:02 78 66
Alias Noble 34:36 43:48 126 107
Mudge Mudge 34:38 35:21 102 87
koro kororareka 35:17 39:59 113 96
Cryptique 35:26 49:47 140 119
boltonwanderer 35:38 38:00 106 90
Kernowdoc 36:01 32:11 89 76
rv_1 36:07 23:43 65 55
hectorslave 36:40 32:12 87 74
Peloton 36:52 34:37 93 79
Shushannah 37:20 44:23 118 100
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 38:06 43:51 115 98
starstruck starstruck_au 38:33 41:43 108 92
Steve Wood 42:14 50:51 120 102
baronrob 44:11 41:43 94 80
MichaelE 45:35 63:32 139 118

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.

Loading...
Loading...
Back