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 148
Count of ref solvers 63
Ref solvers excluded with errors 7
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
Magoo 05:48 05:37 96 64
Paul Gilbert 06:00 12:16 204 137
verlaine Verlaine 06:14 07:55 127 85
lili 06:20 07:43 121 81
Diskus 06:23 09:07 142 95
cmjhutton 06:31 08:24 128 86
mistigris 07:15 12:55 178 120
aphis99 aphis99 07:38 10:14 134 90
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:18 12:04 145 97
asaldanha 09:11 11:03 120 81
markdobell 09:45 12:41 130 87
AlanS 09:56 11:39 117 79
Ciolf 10:07 17:34 173 116
Kinghedger 10:47 19:26 180 121
LoreleiBill 11:00 12:22 112 75
scrabbler 11:02 18:54 171 115
lickert 11:07 16:54 152 102
Freemers 11:11 18:38 166 112
neilr neilr 11:14 19:32 173 116
chindit 11:24 26:55 236 159
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:50 24:25 206 139
fuzz 11:58 10:26 87 58
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:01 22:51 190 128
andy 12:07 16:29 136 91
Adelaider 12:25 17:25 140 94
chriswords 12:29 21:00 168 113
Groucho 12:40 23:35 186 125
Sheapey Sheapey 12:46 27:34 215 145
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 12:50 25:16 196 132
Topical Tim Topical Tim 12:57 19:00 146 98
EricK 13:23 26:44 199 134
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:23 19:23 144 97
Secondbass 13:31 17:45 131 88
Stavros Stavrolex 13:52 21:23 154 104
alexh 13:55 17:50 128 86
LouWeed LouWeed 14:18 19:07 133 89
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 14:24 22:28 156 105
Tibthorpe 14:25 22:00 152 102
Aybee 14:30 18:17 126 85
gabrojak 14:43 24:32 166 112
whichcraft 14:47 23:41 160 108
Pootle Pootle 14:51 23:39 159 107
CentralLine CentralLine 14:52 25:30 171 115
Finzi 15:00 16:34 110 74
DunPangolin 15:00 14:08 94 63
Looch 15:06 19:24 128 86
franceslc11 15:13 26:31 174 117
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:18 24:29 160 108
Ben Staveley 15:19 27:02 176 118
cdb_100 15:38 18:52 120 81
andrewlake 15:51 19:48 124 83
RobR RobR 15:55 24:56 156 105
Carol 15:57 28:19 177 119
tapbarker 16:04 30:24 189 127
Achernar 16:39 29:47 178 120
phthisis 16:40 25:26 152 102
Valance 16:45 24:52 148 100
ajcauk1 16:58 27:19 161 108
SeamusX 17:00 17:30 102 68
rrricharrrd 17:17 30:29 176 118
Encota 17:25 30:50 177 119
Crossiant 17:34 25:47 146 98
PGooden 18:00 29:17 162 109
Squallaby 18:27 27:27 148 100
Jeremy Kenyon 18:30 18:14 98 66
Zander 18:34 26:01 140 94
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 18:57 22:26 118 79
pterodactyl 19:04 30:17 158 106
robinh 19:06 32:04 167 112
LJCN 19:08 27:44 144 97
daniel.faith 19:12 33:34 174 117
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 19:12 31:50 165 111
UisceTe 19:31 35:59 184 124
Colin2355 19:34 34:24 175 118
GMcD 19:41 42:26 215 145
Mike Mansbridge 19:46 25:19 128 86
Grestyman Grestyman 19:55 15:09 76 51
Willie F 20:13 40:49 201 135
pc8 20:21 30:14 148 100
valerian1967 20:21 26:52 132 89
Curarist Curarist 20:24 34:21 168 113
george.garlick 20:31 21:44 105 70
janesa 20:47 34:07 164 110
dr.shred 20:52 25:59 124 83
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:00 28:21 135 91
Aldus 21:34 41:04 190 128
Anomalospiza 21:45 28:42 131 88
James P Special_bitter 21:46 37:55 174 117
Rod B 21:55 32:28 148 100
JayEm 22:10 24:20 109 73
Tudds 22:27 32:18 143 96
Corymbia Corymbia 22:29 45:24 201 135
david_ch 22:43 26:10 115 77
Hamish.S 22:48 34:57 153 103
goblin 23:01 25:27 110 74
alwsn8 23:48 39:09 164 110
mjsaunders9 23:53 80:21 336 227
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 23:59 39:35 165 111
rjcassidy rjcassidy 24:55 40:48 163 110
ratterz 25:10 23:10 92 62
uffindellbirtjn 25:24 32:56 129 87
Coffell 26:05 34:36 132 89
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:19 53:30 203 137
Brenk Brenk1 26:27 34:00 128 86
Yatton50 26:40 38:18 143 96
crosswordian 26:43 34:18 128 86
chris661554 27:03 30:40 113 76
Edprof 27:10 51:54 191 129
barracuda barracuda 27:30 35:32 129 87
Jamie Fox 27:52 36:14 130 87
Dr_Bob 28:27 48:51 171 115
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 28:33 50:02 175 118
gbestanley 28:45 38:19 133 89
Manveru 29:18 21:23 72 48
David Luke 29:32 41:04 139 93
RogerC 29:56 43:42 145 97
vinyl12345 vinyl1 30:26 53:38 176 118
laurence_da 30:38 42:29 138 93
intentional rounding 31:53 45:23 142 95
BertieVII 32:06 35:40 111 75
The Real Steve Snackman 33:06 55:15 166 112
Alias Noble 34:36 38:00 109 73
Mudge Mudge 34:38 33:02 95 64
kapietro kapietro 35:14 79:53 226 152
koro kororareka 35:17 70:29 199 134
Cryptique 35:26 47:41 134 90
boltonwanderer 35:38 75:00 210 141
Bossbutbee 35:57 49:38 138 93
rv_1 36:07 49:59 138 93
Peloton 36:52 44:58 121 81
Shushannah 37:20 70:46 189 127
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 38:06 67:12 176 118
starstruck starstruck_au 38:33 43:11 112 75
Steve Wood 42:14 61:40 146 98
empty 45:56 61:59 134 90

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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