Crossword SNITCH

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

Times Cryptic Crossword 29353

Date 06 October 2025
Number 29353
Day of week Monday
NITCH 83
Count of ref solvers 59
Ref solvers excluded with errors 18
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 29353

* 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 03:05 67 80
Magoo 06:00 03:39 60 72
verlaine Verlaine 06:34 05:25 82 98
cmjhutton 06:35 06:14 94 113
lili 06:36 06:05 92 110
Diskus 06:44 05:45 85 102
hilarym 07:04 06:37 93 112
aphis99 aphis99 07:39 06:10 80 96
Alexis Johansen 07:49 05:38 72 86
HoneyBadger HoneyBadger 08:31 06:21 74 89
Torquay53 08:35 05:44 66 79
asaldanha 09:20 06:52 73 87
richard 09:24 10:31 111 133
glheard glh 09:48 10:45 109 131
markdobell 09:51 06:21 64 77
AlanS 10:14 10:59 107 128
Ciolf 10:15 06:07 59 71
LoreleiBill 10:32 06:38 62 74
Heyesey 11:12 07:05 63 75
Deane Short Deane Short 11:12 07:45 69 83
Kinghedger 11:13 11:14 100 120
lickert 11:36 13:40 117 140
keriothe_ keriothe 11:37 13:54 119 143
neilr neilr 11:42 12:10 103 124
scrabbler 11:49 11:23 96 115
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 11:50 12:30 105 126
miked1961 11:52 12:27 104 125
David Crooks dcrooks 11:53 13:22 112 134
Amoeba89 Amoeba 11:54 10:47 90 108
SimonAnthony 11:56 09:40 81 97
chindit 12:02 09:25 78 93
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 12:15 09:44 79 95
Groucho 12:26 09:23 75 90
aphasic 12:43 13:16 104 125
Sue Sweeper 13:03 18:43 143 172
EricK 13:04 08:38 66 79
Sheapey Sheapey 13:12 10:27 79 95
njnclarke 13:13 14:23 108 130
John Walsh 13:18 14:58 112 134
Silva 13:20 13:13 99 119
MikeOsborne mikeosborne 13:23 12:46 95 114
d.middleton 13:24 13:54 103 124
JimboFS 13:24 14:54 111 133
canismiser 13:27 18:47 139 167
tilbee 13:30 10:47 79 95
Ed freshpot Ed Freshpot 13:55 20:49 149 179
Eddddddd 14:04 15:34 110 132
alexh 14:13 12:27 87 104
CentralLine CentralLine 14:15 18:02 126 151
Stavros Stavrolex 14:16 17:24 121 145
Aybee 14:19 16:41 116 139
LouWeed LouWeed 14:24 12:32 87 104
Semillon 14:26 17:26 120 144
Tibthorpe 14:40 13:05 89 107
MK76 14:54 13:29 90 108
whichcraft 15:04 10:50 71 85
benbush 15:06 14:59 99 119
Finzi 15:06 13:55 92 110
DunPangolin 15:13 16:32 108 130
Pootle Pootle 15:18 10:27 68 81
gabrojak 15:23 13:38 88 106
Ben Staveley 15:41 11:30 73 87
cmcnsmith 16:07 18:26 114 137
andrewlake 16:11 13:14 81 97
RobR RobR 16:12 13:24 82 98
tds 16:26 17:02 103 124
doublecross anguswalker 16:27 12:03 73 87
tapbarker 16:40 10:44 64 77
Mike C 16:54 14:45 87 104
phthisis 17:07 17:30 102 122
thewanderingeditor 17:19 15:10 87 104
rrricharrrd 17:20 13:42 79 95
Achernar 17:21 13:04 75 90
Encota 17:29 18:17 104 125
ilan 17:35 14:14 80 96
Jeremy S 17:36 21:23 121 145
DamienKnapma 17:51 17:06 95 114
Onelug 17:59 21:49 121 145
cdb_100 18:01 29:17 162 195
Dzhigit dzhigit71 18:34 12:50 69 83
dr.shred 19:09 22:47 118 142
uvofiz 19:30 16:42 85 102
Galspray (Rabbitoh) galspray 19:40 13:49 70 84
pterodactyl 19:41 24:58 126 151
hugh schofield Leskoffer 19:58 28:09 140 168
Curarist Curarist 20:04 19:44 98 118
robinh 20:05 23:34 117 140
pc8 20:25 13:47 67 80
Willie F 21:28 25:36 119 143
Zabadak3 Zabadak 21:33 19:01 88 106
JayEm 21:36 12:56 59 71
janesa 21:37 15:35 72 86
george.garlick 21:42 17:14 79 95
tony the butcher montana 21:51 19:43 90 108
Rod B 22:01 17:08 77 92
david_ch 22:14 15:20 68 81
Tudds 22:43 19:03 83 100
infinitejest 22:51 23:18 101 121
goblin 22:52 19:16 84 101
mjsaunders9 24:50 18:23 74 89
Mkgnao Mkgnao 25:03 29:21 117 140
ulaca ulaca 25:14 28:38 113 136
rjcassidy rjcassidy 25:40 24:53 96 115
MichelinPoitiers MichelinPoitiers 25:43 15:37 60 72
Word Psmith wordpsmith 26:23 21:41 82 98
SlumdogEngineer 26:28 15:41 59 71
Brenk Brenk1 26:51 23:30 87 104
Mike Harper Mike Harper 27:04 25:11 93 112
Menelaus 27:05 29:37 109 131
crosswordian 27:20 17:35 64 77
chris661554 27:33 25:32 92 110
Hamish.S 27:36 15:37 56 67
Snorter 27:36 14:51 53 63
barracuda barracuda 28:04 20:54 74 89
Grumpole Grumpole 28:52 29:55 103 124
Jamie Fox 29:19 19:05 65 78
eniamretrauq eniamretrauq 29:22 27:01 91 109
nekabue 29:25 22:12 75 90
Dr_Bob 29:35 28:44 97 116
wimpoldo 29:39 27:06 91 109
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 30:33 13:01 42 50
RogerC 31:09 30:58 99 119
The Real Steve Snackman 31:40 18:22 58 69
NAPASAI napasai 33:19 19:33 58 69
Mudge Mudge 33:47 27:32 81 97
Bossbutbee 34:31 32:50 95 114
rv_1 34:43 16:19 46 55
kapietro kapietro 36:05 21:30 59 71
Pelforth 36:10 19:43 54 65
starstruck starstruck_au 36:31 51:00 139 167
koro kororareka 37:00 30:16 81 97
E Bradford E Bradford 37:23 21:07 56 67
boltonwanderer 38:12 41:00 107 128
Shushannah 38:35 30:30 79 95
Steve Wood 40:28 27:47 68 81
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 40:35 27:04 66 79
MichaelE 46:19 50:19 108 130
empty 46:28 31:29 67 80
CoxBurglar coxburglar 49:45 25:55 52 62
kjbr 56:27 44:16 78 93

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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