Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29338

Date 18 September 2025
Number 29338
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 110
Count of ref solvers 57
Ref solvers excluded with errors 24
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29338

* 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 06:22 112 101
Magoo 05:58 04:38 77 70
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 10:29 160 145
Diskus 06:38 06:39 100 90
mistigris 07:30 08:39 115 104
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 06:55 88 80
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 08:16 97 88
boulemiche 08:56 09:09 102 92
richard 09:57 16:20 164 149
Kinghedger 11:05 16:30 148 134
Freemers 11:20 09:57 87 79
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:38 13:25 115 104
miked1961 11:41 11:37 99 90
keriothe_ keriothe 11:43 18:11 155 140
David Crooks dcrooks 11:49 13:05 110 100
chindit 11:50 10:22 87 79
TB22 12:27 14:34 117 106
aphasic 12:27 12:15 98 89
chriswords 12:44 18:55 148 134
canismiser 12:59 19:30 150 136
JimboFS 13:02 22:10 170 154
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 13:25 102 92
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 16:08 121 110
tilbee 13:18 17:04 128 116
EricK 13:23 10:26 77 70
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:29 13:11 97 88
Peponi13 13:39 19:09 140 127
Secondbass 13:42 13:30 98 89
LouWeed LouWeed 14:22 14:49 103 93
Semillon 14:29 14:45 101 91
Tibthorpe 14:31 15:36 107 97
MK76 14:46 23:39 160 145
gabrojak 14:56 21:52 146 132
benbush 14:59 13:41 91 82
Finzi 15:02 16:17 108 98
Rinteff Rinteff 15:16 17:40 115 104
nickname 15:27 18:01 116 105
Ben Staveley 15:51 14:33 91 82
franceslc11 15:55 19:44 123 111
andrewlake 16:17 16:36 101 91
Valance 16:57 23:38 139 126
Achernar 17:05 23:34 137 124
Vannyx 17:08 12:52 75 68
Crossiant 17:17 21:35 124 112
rrricharrrd 17:17 28:31 164 149
Squallaby 18:09 26:21 145 131
DanSolo 18:32 17:00 91 82
David Bourne 18:32 25:12 135 122
KET 18:53 29:48 157 142
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:03 17:22 91 82
Zander 19:16 25:26 132 120
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:21 18:58 98 89
GMcD 19:47 19:52 100 90
LJCN 19:47 15:13 76 69
uvofiz 19:50 19:30 98 89
rjhinde61 19:54 22:42 114 103
babka 20:02 25:28 127 115
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:09 20:28 101 91
daniel.faith 20:09 21:41 107 97
Curarist Curarist 20:26 18:18 89 80
gsriordan52 20:43 21:47 105 95
valerian1967 20:54 18:16 87 79
pc8 20:56 21:03 100 90
Aldus 21:08 23:41 112 101
Astonvilla.1 21:14 27:32 129 117
george.garlick 21:22 40:24 189 171
James P Special_bitter 21:32 23:04 107 97
Willie F 21:33 31:52 147 133
alwsn8 21:55 20:42 94 85
david_ch 22:20 35:00 156 141
Rod B 22:24 24:36 109 99
Tudds 22:25 24:26 108 98
Corymbia Corymbia 22:56 24:29 106 96
goblin 23:01 23:03 100 90
1234 23:18 25:34 109 99
Hamish.S 23:26 18:30 78 70
En Cee 24:47 30:28 122 110
mjsaunders9 24:47 30:29 122 110
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 29:38 117 106
Fidelio 26:00 21:04 81 73
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:18 25:32 97 88
ChrisBrea 26:24 31:42 120 109
crosswordian 27:02 28:17 104 94
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:18 34:08 125 113
simjt simjt 29:29 40:59 139 126
nekabue 29:34 41:40 140 127
laurence_da 30:12 93:05 308 280
RogerC 31:10 39:33 126 114
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:29 49:32 157 142
The Real Steve Snackman 32:16 38:17 118 107
intentional rounding 32:39 41:15 126 114
Rookie 33:57 40:35 119 108
Cryptique 36:03 33:42 93 84
Birdingbob 36:07 35:43 98 89
koro kororareka 36:16 35:55 99 90
boltonwanderer 37:12 45:00 120 109
SK42 37:26 42:43 114 103
starstruck starstruck_au 37:37 37:56 100 90
MartianAlien 37:43 22:55 60 54
crucihacker Crucihacker 37:58 32:31 85 77
E Bradford E Bradford 38:11 37:14 97 88
Shushannah 38:56 45:01 115 104
Dr Dolittle 39:26 35:32 90 81
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:17 36:33 90 81
Steve Wood 41:39 35:59 86 78
Merlin_55 58:53 58:15 98 89

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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