Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29351

Date 03 October 2025
Number 29351
Day of week Friday
NITCH 145
Count of ref solvers 69
Ref solvers excluded with errors 13
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29351

* 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 04:34 07:00 153 105
Nathan Panning 05:33 08:06 145 100
Magoo 06:00 07:45 129 88
Paul Gilbert 06:15 08:37 137 94
verlaine Verlaine 06:34 09:37 146 100
cmjhutton 06:35 12:58 196 135
lili 06:36 08:57 135 93
Diskus 06:44 09:54 147 101
Jason 06:57 11:22 163 112
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 10:15 133 91
Alexis Johansen 07:49 15:26 197 135
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:31 09:50 115 79
Torquay53 08:35 06:51 79 54
richard 09:24 10:15 109 75
markdobell 09:51 14:25 146 100
Ciolf 10:15 11:00 107 73
Heyesey 11:12 13:26 119 82
Kinghedger 11:13 22:10 197 135
lickert 11:36 16:32 142 97
keriothe_ keriothe 11:37 19:05 164 113
neilr neilr 11:42 20:12 172 118
scrabbler 11:49 17:54 151 104
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:50 20:15 171 117
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:54 19:35 164 113
chindit 12:02 19:07 158 108
andy 12:14 16:54 138 95
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:15 08:59 73 50
TB22 13:00 45:46 352 242
Sue Sweeper 13:03 18:52 144 99
EricK 13:04 14:53 113 77
Sheapey Sheapey 13:12 22:50 172 118
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:23 18:48 140 96
March (JeffCollins) mch1 13:24 22:03 164 113
Topical Tim Topical Tim 13:28 25:49 191 131
tilbee 13:30 25:19 187 128
Secondbass 13:38 17:12 126 86
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:55 20:19 145 100
7dPenguin (KenG) 7dPenguin 14:06 23:29 166 114
Stavros Stavrolex 14:16 19:11 134 92
LouWeed LouWeed 14:24 21:41 150 103
Semillon 14:26 26:09 181 124
Tibthorpe 14:40 21:33 146 100
whichcraft 15:04 25:31 169 116
Finzi 15:06 21:27 142 97
Pootle Pootle 15:18 16:22 106 73
andrewlake 16:11 21:26 132 91
franceslc11 16:14 25:35 157 108
myles 16:21 36:21 222 153
tapbarker 16:40 22:41 136 93
Vannyx 16:55 36:39 216 148
hopkinb hopkinb 17:04 29:15 171 117
phthisis 17:07 22:38 132 91
Valance 17:15 29:09 168 115
rrricharrrd 17:20 24:52 143 98
Encota 17:29 23:41 135 93
ilan 17:35 26:43 151 104
Crossiant 18:00 31:16 173 119
cdb_100 18:01 17:54 99 68
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:34 28:34 153 105
LJCN 18:36 24:55 133 91
David Bourne 18:38 41:45 224 154
KarenR 19:22 26:05 134 92
uvofiz 19:30 21:39 111 76
GMcD 19:49 31:37 159 109
Astonvilla1 19:56 36:00 180 124
rjhinde61 20:02 38:35 192 132
Curarist Curarist 20:04 32:24 161 111
robinh 20:05 27:21 136 93
valerian1967 20:17 37:13 183 126
pc8 20:25 30:47 150 103
Anomalospiza 20:32 29:06 141 97
Aldus 20:39 28:07 136 93
alwsn8 20:51 40:38 194 133
The Caffeine Kid 21:12 55:54 263 181
James P Special_bitter 21:16 27:22 128 88
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:33 25:33 118 81
UisceTe 21:43 29:29 135 93
tony the butcher montana 21:51 55:08 252 173
Rod B 22:01 29:55 135 93
1234 22:52 47:22 207 142
goblin 22:52 42:12 184 126
Corymbia Corymbia 23:17 51:06 219 151
mjsaunders9 24:50 35:06 141 97
ulaca ulaca 25:14 78:48 312 215
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:40 36:37 142 97
Yatton50 25:55 60:55 235 162
Deezzaa Deezzaa 26:25 27:49 105 72
Brenk Brenk1 26:51 34:50 129 88
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 47:47 176 121
crosswordian 27:20 33:54 124 85
FelicityTT 27:22 36:10 132 91
chris661554 27:33 44:46 162 111
Hamish.S 27:36 31:09 112 77
uffindellbirtjn 27:39 33:31 121 83
JohnDun (johndun) john_dun 27:54 48:52 175 120
barracuda barracuda 28:04 47:27 169 116
Gussie 28:31 40:48 143 98
Grumpole Grumpole 28:52 45:14 156 107
nekabue 29:25 50:21 171 117
Dr_Bob 29:35 43:01 145 100
David Luke 30:02 59:10 197 135
MartianAlien 30:46 26:14 85 58
The Real Steve Snackman 31:40 44:38 140 96
alexngbr 31:58 50:40 158 108
intentional rounding 32:06 40:47 127 87
vinyl12345 vinyl1 32:48 51:09 155 106
NAPASAI napasai 33:19 48:50 146 100
Mudge Mudge 33:47 41:59 124 85
laurence_da 33:58 63:46 187 128
Bossbutbee 34:31 115:33 334 230
Peloton 35:55 44:56 125 86
starstruck starstruck_au 36:31 45:23 124 85
koro kororareka 37:00 49:14 133 91
E Bradford E Bradford 37:23 46:17 123 84
SK42 37:30 26:37 70 48
boltonwanderer 38:12 50:00 130 89
Shushannah 38:35 62:45 162 111
baronrob 39:40 83:43 211 145
Steve Wood 40:28 45:32 112 77
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:35 55:05 135 93
Aidleys 43:27 65:53 151 104

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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