Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29335

Date 15 September 2025
Number 29335
Day of week Monday
NITCH 69
Count of ref solvers 60
Ref solvers excluded with errors 4
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29335

* 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 04:05 72 104
Paul Gilbert 06:10 05:01 81 117
lili 06:27 04:14 65 94
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 05:19 81 117
Diskus 06:38 05:45 86 124
Jason 06:58 04:20 62 89
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 06:05 77 111
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 07:12 85 123
boulemiche 08:56 11:48 132 191
asaldanha 09:16 05:35 60 86
richard 09:57 06:31 65 94
markdobell 09:57 06:07 61 88
Ciolf 10:14 09:13 90 130
LoreleiBill 10:37 09:25 88 127
Kinghedger 11:05 07:16 65 94
neilr neilr 11:27 10:34 92 133
scrabbler 11:33 10:55 94 136
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:38 06:04 52 75
miked1961 11:41 06:46 57 82
keriothe_ keriothe 11:43 06:56 59 85
Heyesey 11:48 07:24 62 89
David Crooks dcrooks 11:49 10:56 92 133
chindit 11:50 06:29 54 78
SimonAnthony 11:58 13:53 116 168
Golvellius 12:01 10:48 89 128
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:17 07:02 57 82
aphasic 12:27 08:57 71 102
andy 12:30 11:26 91 131
Groucho 12:39 09:31 75 108
trux trux20 12:55 09:20 72 104
canismiser 12:59 10:48 83 120
Paul Bacon 13:02 14:50 113 163
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 09:09 69 100
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 10:07 76 110
d.middleton 13:20 11:15 84 121
EricK 13:23 18:12 135 195
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:29 11:43 86 124
Peponi13 13:39 14:30 106 153
Secondbass 13:42 10:20 75 108
Riche Riche 13:46 11:20 82 118
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:49 15:05 109 157
alexh 14:02 11:06 79 114
Eddddddd 14:17 13:12 92 133
LouWeed LouWeed 14:22 08:09 56 81
Aybee 14:28 10:25 72 104
Semillon 14:29 12:45 88 127
Tibthorpe 14:31 10:08 69 100
MK76 14:46 10:20 69 100
Pootle Pootle 14:59 10:41 71 102
Finzi 15:02 11:06 73 105
Looch 15:07 11:22 75 108
DunPangolin 15:08 12:28 82 118
JezWoolfrey 15:09 12:58 85 123
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 15:14 10:42 70 101
BlackburnRover 15:20 16:18 106 153
julian_w 15:25 13:35 88 127
Carol 15:44 11:22 72 104
cmcnsmith 15:45 18:08 115 166
myles 15:45 15:51 100 144
robertL 15:47 07:18 46 66
franceslc11 15:55 11:17 70 101
tapbarker 16:13 11:39 71 102
andrewlake 16:17 17:47 109 157
tds 16:18 10:29 64 92
hopkinb hopkinb 16:22 16:40 101 146
ajcauk1 16:40 21:26 128 185
Cookincats 16:42 16:43 100 144
Valance 16:57 10:36 62 89
Vannyx 17:08 14:41 85 123
Jeremy S 17:17 22:26 129 186
Crossiant 17:17 13:07 75 108
rrricharrrd 17:17 16:03 92 133
Mike C 17:25 12:43 73 105
PGooden 17:29 13:03 74 107
Squallaby 18:09 09:51 54 78
cdb_100 18:20 09:41 52 75
DanSolo 18:32 10:57 59 85
pterodactyl 18:58 17:52 94 136
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:03 10:11 53 76
Zander 19:16 10:33 54 78
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 19:20 18:50 97 140
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:21 17:24 89 128
robinh 19:27 16:48 86 124
GMcD 19:47 10:13 51 73
LJCN 19:47 19:21 97 140
uvofiz 19:50 15:57 80 115
rjhinde61 19:54 14:29 72 104
babka 20:02 08:25 42 60
daniel.faith 20:09 19:14 95 137
Curarist Curarist 20:26 13:54 68 98
Nangle 20:32 14:52 72 104
Gallion Fish 20:42 14:04 67 97
pc8 20:56 14:59 71 102
Dvynys dvynys 21:05 14:04 66 95
The Caffeine Kid 21:07 16:19 77 111
Aldus 21:08 12:43 60 86
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:09 14:00 66 95
Anomalospiza 21:13 16:15 76 110
george.garlick 21:22 17:39 82 118
DianeRS 21:26 16:06 75 108
James P Special_bitter 21:32 15:14 70 101
Willie F 21:33 14:01 65 94
alwsn8 21:55 17:54 81 117
JayEm 22:11 22:10 99 143
david_ch 22:20 18:05 80 115
Rod B 22:24 11:45 52 75
Tudds 22:25 18:27 82 118
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:39 24:38 108 156
Rosey6 22:40 25:50 113 163
goblin 23:01 15:59 69 100
1234 23:18 18:17 78 113
Hamish.S 23:26 15:20 65 94
stainl665 23:37 17:46 75 108
Crippens1 23:56 16:20 68 98
mjsaunders9 24:47 20:15 81 117
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:55 17:09 68 98
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 24:55 98 142
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:15 18:58 75 108
ulaca ulaca 25:30 23:59 94 136
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:18 18:08 68 98
Brenk Brenk1 26:20 20:08 76 110
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:58 17:28 64 92
crosswordian 27:02 21:37 79 114
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:18 21:30 78 113
barracuda barracuda 28:06 18:56 67 97
Grumpole Grumpole 29:06 35:07 120 173
Manveru 29:22 32:56 112 162
gbestanley 29:24 31:44 107 155
Dr_Bob 29:33 18:52 63 91
nekabue 29:34 21:48 73 105
laurence_da 30:12 24:57 82 118
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:29 20:44 65 94
piltdown man 31:33 28:10 89 128
jackk.larg 31:52 31:24 98 142
birthday girl 32:13 31:18 97 140
The Real Steve Snackman 32:16 20:11 62 89
intentional rounding 32:39 32:28 99 143
NAPASAI napasai 33:08 22:58 69 100
koro kororareka 36:16 25:12 69 100
kapietro kapietro 36:39 19:05 52 75
boltonwanderer 37:12 51:00 137 198
Peloton 37:15 28:36 76 110
starstruck starstruck_au 37:37 22:25 59 85
crucihacker Crucihacker 37:58 12:57 34 49
E Bradford E Bradford 38:11 30:05 78 113
joss henry 38:28 37:35 97 140
Shushannah 38:56 32:15 82 118
JGP 39:59 30:10 75 108
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:17 23:14 57 82
Steve Wood 41:39 22:27 53 76
hydrochoos hydrochoos 43:14 33:00 76 110
Aidleys 44:58 41:15 91 131
MichaelE 45:59 34:41 75 108
empty 46:09 39:48 86 124
CoxBurglar coxburglar 46:59 29:49 63 91
Merlin_55 58:53 51:28 87 126

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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