Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29345

Date 26 September 2025
Number 29345
Day of week Friday
NITCH 117
Count of ref solvers 62
Ref solvers excluded with errors 16
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29345

* 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 05:27 91 77
Paul Gilbert 06:10 09:58 161 137
lili 06:27 06:40 103 88
verlaine Verlaine 06:32 06:48 104 88
Diskus 06:38 07:57 119 101
Jason 06:58 08:31 122 104
DeLilith 07:53 06:56 87 74
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:27 09:08 108 92
asaldanha 09:16 10:10 109 93
markdobell 09:57 15:28 155 132
Kinghedger 11:05 17:35 158 135
scrabbler 11:33 18:06 156 133
keriothe_ keriothe 11:43 13:01 111 94
Heyesey 11:48 15:30 131 111
chindit 11:50 15:35 131 111
Golvellius 12:01 14:02 116 99
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:08 16:15 133 113
Amoeba89 Amoeba 12:17 15:28 125 106
aphasic 12:27 17:10 137 117
chriswords 12:44 18:39 146 124
trux trux20 12:55 22:00 170 145
canismiser 12:59 21:11 163 139
JimboFS 13:02 17:42 135 115
Sheapey Sheapey 13:08 23:01 175 149
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:15 14:12 107 91
tilbee 13:18 14:34 109 93
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:29 12:05 89 76
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:36 14:42 108 92
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 13:49 18:53 136 116
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:53 12:46 91 77
alexh 14:02 19:21 137 117
Eddddddd 14:17 14:48 103 88
LouWeed LouWeed 14:22 16:40 116 99
CentralLine CentralLine 14:23 22:00 152 129
Aybee 14:28 16:41 115 98
Semillon 14:29 21:29 148 126
Tibthorpe 14:31 18:53 130 111
gabrojak 14:56 25:46 172 147
Pootle Pootle 14:59 22:41 151 129
benbush 14:59 24:53 166 141
Finzi 15:02 15:34 103 88
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 15:14 18:56 124 105
Rinteff Rinteff 15:16 23:48 155 132
franceslc11 15:55 23:42 148 126
andrewlake 16:17 22:40 139 118
hopkinb hopkinb 16:22 28:20 173 147
Achernar 17:05 20:13 118 100
Vannyx 17:08 22:14 129 110
Crossiant 17:17 23:22 135 115
phthisis 17:18 24:53 143 122
Squallaby 18:09 20:18 111 94
cdb_100 18:20 14:27 78 66
DanSolo 18:32 21:30 116 99
KET 18:53 15:37 82 70
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 19:20 21:48 112 95
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:21 13:30 69 58
robinh 19:27 24:24 125 106
tony the butcher montana 19:44 24:29 124 105
GMcD 19:47 25:27 128 109
LJCN 19:47 26:59 136 116
uvofiz 19:50 22:50 115 98
rjhinde61 19:54 26:25 132 112
Curarist Curarist 20:26 22:39 110 94
valerian1967 20:54 23:04 110 94
pc8 20:56 17:07 81 69
The Caffeine Kid 21:07 14:35 69 58
Aldus 21:08 27:12 128 109
janesa 21:11 27:20 129 110
Anomalospiza 21:13 20:51 98 83
UisceTe 21:22 23:16 108 92
Willie F 21:33 21:20 98 83
JayEm 22:11 22:59 103 88
infinitejest 22:13 33:37 151 129
Rod B 22:24 36:30 162 138
Tudds 22:25 40:14 179 152
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 22:39 27:16 120 102
Corymbia Corymbia 22:56 26:51 117 100
goblin 23:01 28:56 125 106
mjsaunders9 24:47 22:57 92 78
Mkgnao Mkgnao 24:55 22:51 91 77
uffindellbirtjn 25:14 21:55 86 73
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:15 24:47 98 83
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:18 31:52 121 103
ChrisBrea 26:24 26:16 99 84
SlumdogEngineer 26:25 50:14 190 162
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:18 39:26 144 123
barracuda barracuda 28:06 40:49 145 123
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 28:57 13:03 45 38
Gussie 29:02 25:17 87 74
Jamie Fox 29:02 33:23 114 97
wimpoldo 29:21 31:27 107 91
gbestanley 29:24 36:26 123 105
Dr_Bob 29:33 27:34 93 79
nekabue 29:34 35:22 119 101
Jonathan O 29:45 35:48 120 102
Mike Mansbridge 29:50 61:38 206 176
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 30:23 23:06 76 64
vinyl12345 vinyl1 31:29 46:58 149 127
The Real Steve Snackman 32:16 26:28 82 70
intentional rounding 32:39 21:09 64 54
BertieVII 33:07 36:22 109 93
alexngbr 33:13 30:01 90 76
JoeyC 34:06 41:10 120 102
Cryptique 36:03 26:24 73 62
Birdingbob 36:07 54:04 149 127
Pelforth 36:08 34:45 96 82
koro kororareka 36:16 51:31 142 121
boltonwanderer 37:12 51:00 137 117
SK42 37:26 32:22 86 73
starstruck starstruck_au 37:37 31:55 84 71
MartianAlien 37:43 29:21 77 65
E Bradford E Bradford 38:11 32:48 85 72
Shushannah 38:56 36:45 94 80
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:17 42:31 105 89
Steve Wood 41:39 72:37 174 148
MichaelE 45:59 56:49 123 105
empty 46:09 57:22 124 105
CoxBurglar coxburglar 46:59 48:06 102 87
profsjpayne 57:38 80:24 139 118
NJP1 58:39 100:36 171 146

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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