Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29303

Date 08 August 2025
Number 29303
Day of week Friday
NITCH 152
Count of ref solvers 65
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29303

* 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
verlaine Verlaine 06:14 07:55 127 83
lili 06:20 07:43 121 79
cmjhutton 06:31 08:24 128 84
mistigris 07:15 12:55 178 117
aphis99 aphis99 07:38 10:14 134 88
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:18 12:04 145 95
markdobell 09:45 12:41 130 85
Ciolf 10:07 17:34 173 113
Kinghedger 10:47 19:26 180 118
LoreleiBill 11:00 12:22 112 73
Freemers 11:11 18:38 166 109
chindit 11:24 26:55 236 155
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:50 24:25 206 135
andy 12:07 16:29 136 89
chriswords 12:29 21:00 168 110
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:57 19:00 146 96
EricK 13:23 26:44 199 130
LouWeed LouWeed 14:18 19:07 133 87
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:24 22:28 156 102
Tibthorpe 14:25 22:00 152 100
Aybee 14:30 18:17 126 82
Pootle Pootle 14:51 23:39 159 104
CentralLine CentralLine 14:52 25:30 171 112
DunPangolin 15:00 14:08 94 61
Finzi 15:00 16:34 110 72
Looch 15:06 19:24 128 84
franceslc11 15:13 26:31 174 114
Ben Staveley 15:19 27:02 176 115
cdb_100 15:38 18:52 120 78
RobR RobR 15:55 24:56 156 102
tapbarker 16:04 30:24 189 124
Achernar 16:39 29:47 178 117
phthisis 16:40 25:26 152 100
ajcauk1 16:58 27:19 161 105
SeamusX 17:00 17:30 102 67
Encota 17:25 30:50 177 116
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:57 22:26 118 77
pterodactyl 19:04 30:17 158 103
robinh 19:06 32:04 167 109
Colin2355 19:34 34:24 175 115
valerian1967 20:21 26:52 132 86
Curarist Curarist 20:24 34:21 168 110
george.garlick 20:31 21:44 105 69
dr.shred 20:52 25:59 124 81
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:00 28:21 135 88
Aldus 21:34 41:04 190 125
Anomalospiza 21:45 28:42 131 86
Rod B 21:55 32:28 148 97
Tudds 22:27 32:18 143 94
Corymbia Corymbia 22:29 45:24 201 132
Hamish.S 22:48 34:57 153 100
goblin 23:01 25:27 110 72
alwsn8 23:48 39:09 164 107
mjsaunders9 23:53 80:21 336 221
Coffell 26:05 34:36 132 86
Brenk Brenk1 26:27 34:00 128 84
Yatton50 26:40 38:18 143 94
chris661554 27:03 30:40 113 74
barracuda barracuda 27:30 35:32 129 84
Jamie Fox 27:52 36:14 130 85
Dr_Bob 28:27 48:51 171 112
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:33 50:02 175 115
gbestanley 28:45 38:19 133 87
Manveru 29:18 21:23 72 47
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:26 53:38 176 115
laurence_da 30:38 42:29 138 90
intentional rounding 31:53 45:23 142 93
BertieVII 32:06 35:40 111 73
The Real Steve Snackman 33:06 55:15 166 109
Alias Noble 34:36 38:00 109 71
Mudge Mudge 34:38 33:02 95 62
kapietro kapietro 35:14 79:53 226 148
koro kororareka 35:17 70:29 199 130
Cryptique 35:26 47:41 134 88
boltonwanderer 35:38 75:00 210 138
Bossbutbee 35:57 49:38 138 90
rv_1 36:07 49:59 138 90
Peloton 36:52 44:58 121 79
Shushannah 37:20 70:46 189 124
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 38:06 67:12 176 115
starstruck starstruck_au 38:33 43:11 112 73
Steve Wood 42:14 61:40 146 96
empty 45:56 61:59 134 88

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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