Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29336

Date 16 September 2025
Number 29336
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 100
Count of ref solvers 64
Ref solvers excluded with errors 10
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29336

* 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 05:58 07:06 118 118
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 06:08 93 93
Diskus 06:38 06:54 104 104
hilarym 06:54 08:54 128 128
Jason 06:58 08:32 122 122
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 07:45 99 99
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 09:30 112 112
boulemiche 08:56 10:12 114 114
markdobell 09:57 08:14 82 82
Ciolf 10:14 08:22 81 81
LoreleiBill 10:37 09:16 87 87
Kinghedger 11:05 12:24 111 111
Freemers 11:20 10:12 90 90
lickert 11:26 12:10 106 106
neilr neilr 11:27 14:54 130 130
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:38 13:13 113 113
miked1961 11:41 09:43 83 83
Heyesey 11:48 12:16 103 103
David Crooks dcrooks 11:49 13:46 116 116
chindit 11:50 11:21 95 95
SimonAnthony 11:58 13:39 114 114
Morphosis 11:59 13:43 114 114
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:08 12:06 99 99
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:17 15:53 129 129
aphasic 12:27 15:34 125 125
Adelaider 12:29 13:41 109 109
andy 12:30 18:22 146 146
Groucho 12:39 14:27 114 114
canismiser 12:59 13:27 103 103
njnclarke 13:06 16:24 125 125
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 17:00 129 129
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 12:50 96 96
tilbee 13:18 16:11 121 121
EricK 13:23 10:27 78 78
Secondbass 13:42 23:17 169 169
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:53 15:21 110 110
alexh 14:02 16:20 116 116
LouWeed LouWeed 14:22 18:39 129 129
Aybee 14:28 18:44 129 129
Semillon 14:29 14:02 96 96
Tibthorpe 14:31 19:25 133 133
Stavros Stavrolex 14:44 13:32 91 91
gabrojak 14:56 20:41 138 138
benbush 14:59 11:01 73 73
Finzi 15:02 16:37 110 110
Looch 15:07 11:25 75 75
DunPangolin 15:08 16:17 107 107
myles 15:45 22:17 141 141
Ben Staveley 15:51 18:29 116 116
franceslc11 15:55 16:57 106 106
tapbarker 16:13 17:31 108 108
andrewlake 16:17 19:25 119 119
RobR RobR 16:24 28:06 171 171
Valance 16:57 18:05 106 106
LuckOfLucien 17:13 16:51 97 97
Jeremy S 17:17 30:33 176 176
Mike C 17:25 13:26 77 77
PGooden 17:29 16:03 91 91
Jeremy Kenyon 18:13 13:09 72 72
cdb_100 18:20 08:08 44 44
KET 18:53 26:17 139 139
Zander 19:16 10:58 56 56
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 19:20 35:13 182 182
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:21 17:59 92 92
robinh 19:27 18:27 94 94
GMcD 19:47 25:34 129 129
LJCN 19:47 13:57 70 70
uvofiz 19:50 21:08 106 106
rjhinde61 19:54 21:52 109 109
KarenR 20:09 18:48 93 93
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:09 30:18 150 150
Curarist Curarist 20:26 20:42 101 101
gsriordan52 20:43 32:16 155 155
valerian1967 20:54 16:30 78 78
pc8 20:56 18:47 89 89
Dvynys dvynys 21:05 20:50 98 98
The Caffeine Kid 21:07 17:00 80 80
Aldus 21:08 21:21 101 101
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:09 22:22 105 105
Solving slo mo 21:21 16:50 78 78
george.garlick 21:22 18:57 88 88
DianeRS 21:26 21:22 99 99
Willie F 21:33 22:35 104 104
alwsn8 21:55 21:10 96 96
JayEm 22:11 21:04 94 94
infinitejest 22:13 18:37 83 83
david_ch 22:20 24:00 107 107
Rod B 22:24 18:29 82 82
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:39 31:50 140 140
Corymbia Corymbia 22:56 19:12 83 83
goblin 23:01 27:40 120 120
Hamish.S 23:26 21:13 90 90
stainl665 23:37 19:20 81 81
Crippens1 23:56 23:58 100 100
mjsaunders9 24:47 27:17 110 110
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 29:34 117 117
Word Psmith wordpsmith 26:05 29:42 113 113
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:18 26:57 102 102
Brenk Brenk1 26:20 33:00 125 125
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:58 25:21 94 94
crosswordian 27:02 22:30 83 83
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:18 25:34 93 93
barracuda barracuda 28:06 30:35 108 108
Edprof 28:55 29:04 100 100
wimpoldo 29:21 33:34 114 114
Manveru 29:22 18:36 63 63
gbestanley 29:24 31:28 107 107
Dr_Bob 29:33 22:48 77 77
nekabue 29:34 30:44 103 103
Mike Mansbridge 29:50 26:31 88 88
Pendrov 30:30 42:26 139 139
RogerC 31:10 24:54 79 79
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:29 52:00 165 165
The Real Steve Snackman 32:16 29:23 91 91
intentional rounding 32:39 23:34 72 72
alexngbr 33:13 25:41 77 77
Mudge Mudge 34:03 29:28 86 86
Bossbutbee 35:21 27:12 76 76
rv_1 35:48 30:56 86 86
Cryptique 36:03 20:46 57 57
koro kororareka 36:16 45:50 126 126
boltonwanderer 37:12 67:00 180 180
Peloton 37:15 44:44 120 120
starstruck starstruck_au 37:37 33:50 89 89
MartianAlien 37:43 26:45 70 70
crucihacker Crucihacker 37:58 19:02 50 50
E Bradford E Bradford 38:11 39:23 103 103
Shushannah 38:56 45:55 117 117
Dr Dolittle 39:26 37:31 95 95
JGP 39:59 33:03 82 82
Steve Wood 41:39 34:03 81 81
baronrob 43:03 46:11 107 107
Aidleys 44:58 54:13 120 120
MichaelE 45:59 49:51 108 108
empty 46:09 35:00 75 75

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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