Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29342

Date 23 September 2025
Number 29342
Day of week Tuesday
NITCH 65
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29342

* 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 03:41 65 100
Magoo 05:58 04:07 68 104
Paul Gilbert 06:10 04:57 80 123
lili 06:27 04:37 71 109
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 04:53 74 113
Diskus 06:38 04:57 74 113
hilarym 06:54 06:30 94 144
Jason 06:58 04:40 66 101
mistigris 07:30 03:52 51 78
aphis99 aphis99 07:48 04:16 54 83
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 04:49 57 87
glheard glh 09:28 05:47 61 93
markdobell 09:57 07:12 72 110
tiggis 10:04 09:56 98 150
LoreleiBill 10:37 07:16 68 104
Kinghedger 11:05 06:17 56 86
toots 11:10 06:50 61 93
Deane Short Deane Short 11:24 09:55 86 132
lickert 11:26 11:02 96 147
scrabbler 11:33 10:51 93 143
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:38 09:42 83 127
miked1961 11:41 05:44 49 75
keriothe_ keriothe 11:43 06:23 54 83
Heyesey 11:48 07:39 64 98
David Crooks dcrooks 11:49 11:40 98 150
chindit 11:50 09:59 84 129
SimonAnthony 11:58 06:34 54 83
Morphosis 11:59 09:21 78 120
Golvellius 12:01 06:43 55 84
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:17 05:27 44 67
aphasic 12:27 11:12 89 136
Adelaider 12:29 11:56 95 146
andy 12:30 08:26 67 103
chriswords 12:44 10:31 82 126
trux trux20 12:55 10:48 83 127
canismiser 12:59 15:00 115 176
Paul Bacon 13:02 12:09 93 143
JimboFS 13:02 09:57 76 116
njnclarke 13:06 09:14 70 107
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 07:38 58 89
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 10:28 78 120
tilbee 13:18 07:59 60 92
Silva 13:19 09:34 71 109
EricK 13:23 08:30 63 96
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:29 10:44 79 121
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 09:44 71 109
Secondbass 13:42 10:25 76 116
Riche Riche 13:46 13:43 99 152
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:49 10:29 75 115
alexh 14:02 09:48 69 106
Eddddddd 14:17 09:17 64 98
LouWeed LouWeed 14:22 07:41 53 81
CentralLine CentralLine 14:23 11:24 79 121
Aybee 14:28 12:04 83 127
Semillon 14:29 07:51 54 83
Tibthorpe 14:31 09:51 67 103
Stavros Stavrolex 14:44 06:54 46 70
MK76 14:46 11:39 78 120
gabrojak 14:56 11:15 75 115
benbush 14:59 09:13 61 93
Finzi 15:02 13:31 89 136
whichcraft 15:07 11:03 73 112
Looch 15:07 12:54 85 130
johninterred Johninterred 15:10 13:55 91 140
Rinteff Rinteff 15:16 11:39 76 116
BlackburnRover 15:20 10:33 68 104
nickname 15:27 11:40 75 115
cmcnsmith 15:45 18:49 119 183
Ben Staveley 15:51 10:02 63 96
franceslc11 15:55 12:00 75 115
andrewlake 16:17 08:57 54 83
hopkinb hopkinb 16:22 14:15 87 133
doublecross anguswalker 16:23 13:37 83 127
RobR RobR 16:24 13:19 81 124
chriswestontour Chris West 16:39 14:39 87 133
Cookincats 16:42 17:49 106 163
Valance 16:57 10:05 59 90
Achernar 17:05 18:33 108 166
Vannyx 17:08 14:01 81 124
rrricharrrd 17:17 10:04 58 89
Jeremy S 17:17 15:06 87 133
phthisis 17:18 10:49 62 95
PGooden 17:29 12:03 68 104
Encota 17:44 14:03 79 121
Squallaby 18:09 12:27 68 104
cdb_100 18:20 09:12 50 76
DanSolo 18:32 09:06 49 75
David Bourne 18:32 08:30 45 69
Dzhigit dzhigit71 19:03 14:02 73 112
John Arnold 19:15 14:07 73 112
Zander 19:16 15:04 78 120
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 19:20 15:32 80 123
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:21 09:22 48 73
GMcD 19:47 13:45 69 106
LJCN 19:47 11:47 59 90
uvofiz 19:50 18:47 94 144
dr.shred 19:57 14:13 71 109
babka 20:02 10:46 53 81
hugh schofield Leskoffer 20:09 21:53 108 166
daniel.faith 20:09 13:37 67 103
KarenR 20:09 14:44 73 112
Colin2355 20:18 11:16 55 84
Curarist Curarist 20:26 12:41 62 95
Nangle 20:32 11:21 55 84
Gallion Fish 20:42 09:38 46 70
valerian1967 20:54 10:56 52 80
pc8 20:56 13:50 66 101
The Caffeine Kid 21:07 15:30 73 112
Aldus 21:08 13:29 63 96
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:09 16:48 79 121
janesa 21:11 13:58 65 100
Anomalospiza 21:13 12:24 58 89
Waterloo 21:16 15:46 74 113
UisceTe 21:22 20:39 96 147
James P Special_bitter 21:32 11:31 53 81
Willie F 21:33 13:32 62 95
alwsn8 21:55 14:43 67 103
JayEm 22:11 28:31 128 196
david_ch 22:20 16:05 72 110
Tudds 22:25 14:09 63 96
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:39 19:02 84 129
Rosey6 22:40 18:01 79 121
Corymbia Corymbia 22:56 13:35 59 90
goblin 23:01 19:25 84 129
1234 23:18 18:35 79 121
Crippens1 23:56 20:33 85 130
mjsaunders9 24:47 12:11 49 75
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:55 20:00 80 123
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:15 17:16 68 104
ulaca ulaca 25:30 25:02 98 150
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:18 24:29 93 143
Brenk Brenk1 26:20 17:07 65 100
Menelaus 27:16 24:00 88 135
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:18 16:24 60 92
barracuda barracuda 28:06 17:22 61 93
Jamie Fox 29:02 13:42 47 72
wimpoldo 29:21 21:46 74 113
Manveru 29:22 24:37 83 127
gbestanley 29:24 18:47 63 96
simjt simjt 29:29 20:31 69 106
Dr_Bob 29:33 21:51 73 112
nekabue 29:34 15:46 53 81
laurence_da 30:12 21:09 70 107
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:29 18:53 59 90
birthday girl 32:13 44:40 138 212
intentional rounding 32:39 17:52 54 83
alexngbr 33:13 21:31 64 98
JoeyC 34:06 14:15 41 63
rv_1 35:48 15:03 42 64
koro kororareka 36:16 23:22 64 98
dosbarth 36:29 42:20 116 178
MalcolmD 36:29 33:36 92 141
kapietro kapietro 36:39 28:58 79 121
boltonwanderer 37:12 28:00 75 115
starstruck starstruck_au 37:37 17:33 46 70
Shushannah 38:56 25:11 64 98
JGP 39:59 25:30 63 96
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:17 28:42 71 109
Steve Wood 41:39 33:45 81 124
baronrob 43:03 27:44 64 98
MichaelE 45:59 37:13 80 123
empty 46:09 24:05 52 80
CoxBurglar coxburglar 46:59 53:43 114 175
profsjpayne 57:38 13:00 22 33

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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