Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29350

Date 02 October 2025
Number 29350
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 106
Count of ref solvers 61
Ref solvers excluded with errors 8
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29350

* 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 05:33 05:42 102 96
Paul Gilbert 06:15 05:58 95 89
verlaine Verlaine 06:34 08:30 129 121
cmjhutton 06:35 06:27 97 91
lili 06:36 10:38 161 151
Diskus 06:44 09:18 138 130
Jason 06:57 09:03 130 122
mistigris 07:31 06:17 83 78
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 08:41 113 106
Alexis Johansen 07:49 13:42 175 165
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:31 08:14 96 90
Torquay53 08:35 03:56 45 42
asaldanha 09:20 09:47 104 98
markdobell 09:51 14:00 142 133
LoreleiBill 10:32 08:34 81 76
Heyesey 11:12 09:02 80 75
Kinghedger 11:13 14:01 124 116
toots 11:19 12:13 107 100
lickert 11:36 11:19 97 91
keriothe_ keriothe 11:37 09:49 84 79
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:50 11:16 95 89
miked1961 11:52 12:10 102 96
David Crooks dcrooks 11:53 11:51 99 93
SimonAnthony 11:56 11:54 99 93
chindit 12:02 15:18 127 119
Morphosis 12:04 12:17 101 95
andy 12:14 13:45 112 105
aphasic 12:43 19:10 150 141
chriswords 12:58 13:30 104 98
TB22 13:00 11:37 89 83
Sue Sweeper 13:03 13:53 106 100
Sheapey Sheapey 13:12 16:47 127 119
Silva 13:20 15:00 112 105
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:24 16:30 123 116
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:28 15:36 115 108
tilbee 13:30 13:08 97 91
Secondbass 13:38 10:43 78 73
trux trux20 14:00 10:09 72 67
Eddddddd 14:04 16:14 115 108
alexh 14:13 16:08 113 106
CentralLine CentralLine 14:15 17:55 125 117
Aybee 14:19 16:42 116 109
LouWeed LouWeed 14:24 15:13 105 99
Semillon 14:26 18:39 129 121
Tibthorpe 14:40 12:23 84 79
Looch 15:04 17:11 114 107
whichcraft 15:04 15:24 102 96
Finzi 15:06 14:54 98 92
Pootle Pootle 15:18 22:27 146 137
gabrojak 15:23 17:25 113 106
Carol 15:24 21:47 141 133
johninterred Johninterred 15:55 17:26 109 102
robertL 16:09 19:02 117 110
andrewlake 16:11 19:11 118 111
RobR RobR 16:12 17:33 108 101
myles 16:21 19:24 118 111
tapbarker 16:40 13:24 80 75
Mike C 16:54 17:41 104 98
phthisis 17:07 26:43 156 147
Squallaby 17:15 15:34 90 84
thewanderingeditor 17:19 14:27 83 78
rrricharrrd 17:20 23:34 135 127
Encota 17:29 19:55 113 106
ilan 17:35 21:52 124 116
Jeremy S 17:36 20:04 114 107
DamienKnapma 17:51 24:22 136 128
cdb_100 18:01 14:28 80 75
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:34 22:10 119 112
LJCN 18:36 17:28 93 87
DanSolo 18:44 13:42 73 68
dr.shred 19:09 21:01 109 102
John Arnold 19:19 26:39 137 129
uvofiz 19:30 27:41 141 133
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:40 20:17 103 97
pterodactyl 19:41 23:59 121 114
GMcD 19:49 18:23 92 86
hugh schofield Leskoffer 19:58 21:39 108 101
rjhinde61 20:02 22:02 109 102
Curarist Curarist 20:04 18:27 91 85
robinh 20:05 21:13 105 99
Rowlie26 Rowlie26 20:17 24:41 121 114
valerian1967 20:17 15:59 78 73
pc8 20:25 18:05 88 83
Aldus 20:39 22:57 111 104
gsriordan52 20:47 25:50 124 116
Gallion Fish 20:54 21:11 101 95
The Caffeine Kid 21:12 21:08 99 93
Colin2355 21:15 28:18 133 125
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:33 20:43 96 90
JayEm 21:36 36:26 168 158
Rod B 22:01 24:18 110 103
Tudds 22:43 25:16 111 104
infinitejest 22:51 39:15 171 161
goblin 22:52 16:56 74 69
Corymbia Corymbia 23:17 30:45 132 124
mjsaunders9 24:50 28:09 113 106
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 26:37 106 100
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:25 28:23 107 100
SlumdogEngineer 26:28 24:26 92 86
Brenk Brenk1 26:51 23:12 86 81
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 27:07 100 94
crosswordian 27:20 30:00 109 102
Hamish.S 27:36 23:47 86 81
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 27:54 42:09 151 142
barracuda barracuda 28:04 43:04 153 144
Jamie Fox 29:19 31:09 106 100
Dr_Bob 29:35 30:03 101 95
simjt simjt 29:51 41:24 138 130
David Luke 30:02 30:32 101 95
MartianAlien 30:46 22:05 71 66
RogerC 31:09 23:03 73 68
The Real Steve Snackman 31:40 47:07 148 139
intentional rounding 32:06 32:54 102 96
Kernowdoc 32:39 17:39 54 50
Mudge Mudge 33:47 30:41 90 84
laurence_da 33:58 27:42 81 76
Mike Mansbridge 34:33 21:23 61 57
Cryptique 35:03 27:34 78 73
Alias Noble 35:20 36:33 103 97
Peloton 35:55 37:27 104 98
koro kororareka 37:00 43:18 117 110
SK42 37:30 22:00 58 54
JGP 37:54 33:22 88 83
boltonwanderer 38:12 70:00 183 172
Shushannah 38:35 32:28 84 79
baronrob 39:40 32:40 82 77
Steve Wood 40:28 37:47 93 87
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:35 47:12 116 109
Dr Dolittle 45:04 53:47 119 112
profsjpayne 59:41 90:59 152 143

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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