Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29333

Date 12 September 2025
Number 29333
Day of week Friday
NITCH 186
Count of ref solvers 59
Ref solvers excluded with errors 20
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29333

* 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
Nathan Panning 05:40 11:30 202 108
Magoo 05:58 12:06 202 108
Paul Gilbert 06:10 10:02 162 87
lili 06:27 08:07 125 67
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 12:12 186 100
Diskus 06:38 13:48 208 111
mistigris 07:30 16:30 220 118
Alexis Johansen 07:45 14:22 185 99
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 15:41 185 99
glheard glh 09:28 19:25 205 110
Ciolf 10:14 17:12 168 90
LoreleiBill 10:37 30:06 283 152
Kinghedger 11:05 27:30 248 133
Freemers 11:20 16:51 148 79
lickert 11:26 18:58 165 88
scrabbler 11:33 20:47 179 96
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:38 20:43 178 95
miked1961 11:41 28:49 246 132
keriothe_ keriothe 11:43 18:36 158 84
Golvellius 12:01 29:12 242 130
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:08 21:20 175 94
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:17 21:37 175 94
JimboFS 13:02 36:37 280 150
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 26:47 203 109
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 25:56 195 104
tilbee 13:18 25:33 192 103
EricK 13:23 30:28 227 122
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 26:04 191 102
Aybee 14:28 26:20 182 97
Semillon 14:29 29:05 200 107
Tibthorpe 14:31 29:07 200 107
Pootle Pootle 14:59 36:49 245 131
benbush 14:59 24:57 166 89
Finzi 15:02 32:56 219 117
johninterred Johninterred 15:10 38:02 250 134
Penfold_61 Penfold 15:47 26:07 165 88
franceslc11 15:55 34:18 215 115
tapbarker 16:13 31:29 194 104
andrewlake 16:17 20:33 126 67
Valance 16:57 53:35 316 169
Achernar 17:05 28:23 166 89
rrricharrrd 17:17 22:12 128 68
Crossiant 17:17 44:04 254 136
Mike C 17:25 22:44 130 69
PGooden 17:29 33:13 189 101
cdb_100 18:20 19:00 103 55
Astonvilla1 19:00 40:00 210 112
Zander 19:16 22:46 118 63
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:21 45:30 235 126
robinh 19:27 40:47 209 112
GMcD 19:47 36:15 183 98
LJCN 19:47 30:25 153 82
babka 20:02 35:04 175 94
daniel.faith 20:09 40:30 200 107
Curarist Curarist 20:26 30:21 148 79
valerian1967 20:54 31:34 151 81
pc8 20:56 34:24 164 88
Dvynys dvynys 21:05 49:10 233 125
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:09 52:06 246 132
Anomalospiza 21:13 40:16 189 101
Willie F 21:33 29:49 138 74
Corymbia Corymbia 22:56 44:18 193 103
goblin 23:01 40:32 176 94
mjsaunders9 24:47 35:20 142 76
uffindellbirtjn 25:14 94:03 372 200
ratterz 25:38 27:58 109 58
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:58 49:18 182 97
crosswordian 27:02 50:25 186 100
barracuda barracuda 28:06 41:08 146 78
Gussie 29:02 53:06 182 97
nekabue 29:34 48:07 162 87
David Luke 29:40 57:41 194 104
Mike Mansbridge 29:50 51:34 172 92
RogerC 31:10 58:22 187 100
The Real Steve Snackman 32:16 64:01 198 106
intentional rounding 32:39 43:47 134 72
alexngbr 33:13 54:32 164 88
Kernowdoc 33:23 45:58 137 73
Mudge Mudge 34:03 55:51 164 88
Speedcop2 34:26 52:37 152 81
rv_1 35:48 59:38 166 89
koro kororareka 36:16 58:19 160 86
Peloton 37:15 46:49 125 67
SK42 37:26 49:51 133 71
MartianAlien 37:43 40:00 106 56
Shushannah 38:56 61:17 157 84
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:17 57:39 143 76
MichaelE 45:59 94:44 206 110
empty 46:09 66:53 144 77
CoxBurglar coxburglar 46:59 80:40 171 91

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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