Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29339

Date 19 September 2025
Number 29339
Day of week Friday
NITCH 118
Count of ref solvers 66
Ref solvers excluded with errors 12
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29339

* 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
mohn mohn2 04:33 06:58 153 129
Nathan Panning 05:40 05:43 100 84
Magoo 05:58 09:57 166 140
Paul Gilbert 06:10 09:21 151 127
lili 06:27 12:22 191 161
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 09:16 141 119
Diskus 06:38 08:54 134 113
Jason 06:58 09:03 129 109
mistigris 07:30 07:19 97 82
Alexis Johansen 07:45 09:38 124 105
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 07:44 99 83
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 08:52 104 88
glheard glh 09:28 10:36 111 94
markdobell 09:57 11:51 119 100
lickert 11:26 15:24 134 113
neilr neilr 11:27 17:53 156 132
scrabbler 11:33 16:36 143 121
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:38 17:17 148 125
miked1961 11:41 15:15 130 110
keriothe_ keriothe 11:43 12:34 107 90
Heyesey 11:48 14:00 118 100
chindit 11:50 19:56 168 142
Morphosis 11:59 16:54 141 119
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:17 16:05 130 110
trux trux20 12:55 30:29 236 200
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 17:04 129 109
EricK 13:23 16:17 121 102
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:29 13:27 99 83
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 15:23 113 95
Secondbass 13:42 11:32 84 71
alexh 14:02 16:31 117 99
Eddddddd 14:17 17:02 119 100
LouWeed LouWeed 14:22 15:27 107 90
Aybee 14:28 14:56 103 87
Semillon 14:29 14:19 98 83
Tibthorpe 14:31 21:12 146 123
Stavros Stavrolex 14:44 23:09 157 133
benbush 14:59 20:35 137 116
Pootle Pootle 14:59 32:31 217 183
Finzi 15:02 17:18 115 97
DunPangolin 15:08 17:51 117 99
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 15:14 24:31 160 135
robertL 15:47 18:37 117 99
franceslc11 15:55 18:04 113 95
tapbarker 16:13 18:59 117 99
andrewlake 16:17 20:17 124 105
Valance 16:57 15:26 91 77
Achernar 17:05 27:14 159 134
Jeremy S 17:17 22:06 127 107
ilan 17:27 21:36 123 104
Upfisher 17:58 24:58 138 116
Squallaby 18:09 32:22 178 150
Jeremy Kenyon 18:13 18:48 103 87
cdb_100 18:20 12:41 69 58
thewanderingeditor 18:29 18:13 98 83
DanSolo 18:32 18:49 101 85
KET 18:53 19:22 102 86
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:03 18:52 99 83
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 19:20 32:26 167 141
robinh 19:27 26:18 135 114
tony the butcher montana 19:44 53:19 270 228
LJCN 19:47 22:03 111 94
GMcD 19:47 30:08 152 128
rjhinde61 19:54 22:13 111 94
daniel.faith 20:09 27:25 136 115
Curarist Curarist 20:26 20:34 100 84
gsriordan52 20:43 32:15 155 131
pc8 20:56 20:59 100 84
Aldus 21:08 20:06 95 80
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:09 26:50 126 106
Anomalospiza 21:13 18:33 87 73
george.garlick 21:22 27:50 130 110
alwsn8 21:55 21:12 96 81
Rod B 22:24 25:02 111 94
Corymbia Corymbia 22:56 26:15 114 96
goblin 23:01 24:04 104 88
mjsaunders9 24:47 21:29 86 72
En Cee 24:47 25:56 104 88
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:55 31:38 126 106
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 38:13 151 127
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:18 30:30 115 97
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 26:58 41:52 155 131
crosswordian 27:02 27:45 102 86
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:18 32:11 117 99
barracuda barracuda 28:06 31:43 112 94
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:57 30:05 103 87
Jamie Fox 29:02 43:42 150 127
Grumpole Grumpole 29:06 18:45 64 54
Manveru 29:22 50:32 172 145
Dr_Bob 29:33 39:47 134 113
nekabue 29:34 30:19 102 86
RogerC 31:10 28:31 91 77
The Real Steve Snackman 32:16 43:52 135 114
alexngbr 33:13 33:03 99 83
Jeeves 33:55 31:09 91 77
Mudge Mudge 34:03 36:49 108 91
JoeyC 34:06 26:20 77 65
Bossbutbee 35:21 33:30 94 79
koro kororareka 36:16 47:59 132 111
kapietro kapietro 36:39 38:44 105 88
Peloton 37:15 39:54 107 90
starstruck starstruck_au 37:37 39:26 104 88
MartianAlien 37:43 26:32 70 59
crucihacker Crucihacker 37:58 32:27 85 72
Shushannah 38:56 41:28 106 89
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:17 50:21 124 105
Steve Wood 41:39 30:21 72 61
empty 46:09 52:14 113 95

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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