Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 5183

Date 28 September 2025
Number 5183
Day of week Sunday
NITCH 126
Count of ref solvers 41
Ref solvers excluded with errors 0
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 5183

* 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 06:00 11:09 185 146
Paul Gilbert 06:15 13:04 209 165
verlaine Verlaine 06:34 11:56 181 143
cmjhutton 06:35 08:36 130 103
Diskus 06:44 04:52 72 57
Jason 06:57 07:39 110 87
mistigris 07:31 07:58 105 83
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 16:59 222 176
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:31 14:04 165 130
Torquay53 08:35 06:09 71 56
markdobell 09:51 18:37 189 150
Heyesey 11:12 09:56 88 69
Kinghedger 11:13 17:14 153 121
lickert 11:36 14:55 128 101
keriothe_ keriothe 11:37 14:11 122 96
scrabbler 11:49 15:42 132 104
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:50 15:50 133 105
SimonAnthony 11:56 15:05 126 100
chindit 12:02 12:50 106 84
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:15 17:23 141 111
EricK 13:04 15:02 115 91
Sheapey Sheapey 13:12 18:02 136 107
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:23 19:26 145 115
tilbee 13:30 15:49 117 92
Secondbass 13:38 18:42 137 108
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:55 22:51 164 130
trux trux20 14:00 14:49 105 83
CentralLine CentralLine 14:15 17:20 121 96
LouWeed LouWeed 14:24 21:06 146 115
Tibthorpe 14:40 13:28 91 72
MK76 14:54 22:49 153 121
Finzi 15:06 20:26 135 107
Carol 15:24 23:36 153 121
andrewlake 16:11 18:25 113 89
franceslc11 16:14 20:45 127 100
tapbarker 16:40 21:50 131 103
Mike C 16:54 21:14 125 99
phthisis 17:07 21:05 123 97
Encota 17:29 19:07 109 86
Upfisher 17:47 21:34 121 96
Crossiant 18:00 23:45 131 103
DanSolo 18:44 21:32 114 90
KET 19:29 08:52 45 35
Anomalospiza 20:32 19:59 97 76
gsriordan52 20:47 12:21 59 46
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:33 22:04 102 80
mjsaunders9 24:50 20:00 80 63
barracuda barracuda 28:04 21:12 75 59
MartianAlien 30:46 23:39 76 60

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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