Quick SNITCH

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

Times Quick Cryptic Crossword 2938

Date 17 March 2025
Number 2938
Setter Trelawney
Day of week Monday
NITCH 72
Count of ref solvers 71
Ref solvers excluded with errors 23
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 2938

* Requires access to the Times Crossword Club

Detailed solving results

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 02:03 01:39 80 111
cmjhutton 02:18 01:38 71 98
Paul Gilbert 02:24 02:01 84 116
Jason 02:34 02:00 77 106
mistigris 02:43 02:12 80 111
hilarym 02:47 02:54 104 144
aphis99 aphis99 02:54 02:56 101 140
Flimmy flammy 03:16 02:32 77 106
Sheapey Sheapey 03:40 02:55 79 109
Ciolf 03:48 02:37 68 94
Heyesey 03:54 02:53 73 101
glheard 04:09 03:29 83 115
AlanS 04:09 03:48 91 126
SimonAnthony 04:11 02:53 68 94
Amoeba89 04:13 02:36 61 84
Topical Tim Topical Tim 04:16 02:34 60 83
Umpire 04:23 02:52 65 90
Roscoe 04:26 04:08 93 129
Deane Short 04:31 03:06 68 94
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 04:36 04:15 92 127
MK76 04:40 03:28 74 102
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 04:43 03:52 81 112
Honggui 04:46 03:26 72 100
canismiser 04:47 04:39 97 134
alexh 04:48 04:21 90 125
LouWeed LouWeed 04:52 03:33 72 100
lucyg43484 04:53 03:20 68 94
Paul Bacon 04:53 05:11 106 147
Liari 04:55 04:33 92 127
scrabbler 04:57 03:52 78 108
andy 05:00 03:50 76 105
Freemers 05:02 03:34 70 97
tiggis 05:05 03:04 60 83
March 05:06 03:55 76 105
McBeakLives 05:07 04:44 92 127
EricK 05:07 03:06 60 83
ChuckB 05:16 05:40 107 148
JayEm 05:17 03:28 65 90
Johninterred 05:17 04:34 86 119
7dPenguin 7dPenguin 05:18 04:08 77 106
pitcaithlie Pitcaithlie 05:19 04:31 84 116
Squallaby 05:24 03:26 63 87
Aly Duncan 05:32 03:11 57 79
AndyKnott321 05:33 04:27 80 111
rrricharrrd 05:33 03:33 63 87
Finzi 05:41 04:57 87 120
GeorgeTz 05:43 05:08 89 123
Rabbitoh galspray 05:44 03:12 55 76
Adelaider 05:45 03:28 60 83
esmeralda 05:45 03:24 59 81
KET 05:46 05:57 103 143
Encota 05:51 04:18 73 101
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 05:53 04:10 70 97
Rosron 05:58 04:34 76 105
whichcraft 06:01 03:08 52 72
chriswestontour 06:08 05:26 88 122
andrewfeist96 06:17 03:18 52 72
hopkinb hopkinb 06:18 04:53 77 106
PGooden 06:19 06:25 101 140
Dzhigit 06:24 04:56 77 106
Adrian Cobb 06:28 05:59 92 127
SBQuick 06:31 04:57 75 104
Vannyx 06:37 03:28 52 72
Kalakuta72 06:43 06:18 93 129
Tudds 06:46 05:09 76 105
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 06:52 07:15 105 145
drginacoco 06:55 01:31 21 29
Gaius 07:00 05:16 75 104
James P 07:04 05:23 76 105
earlylight 07:04 04:49 68 94
robinh 07:07 06:08 86 119
Nangle 07:17 06:03 83 115
Dvynys Dvynys 07:17 06:01 82 113
Puzzleplease 07:20 06:53 93 129
FraserH 07:20 04:48 65 90
thewanderingeditor 07:21 04:18 58 80
DianeRS 07:24 05:11 70 97
kitty.banks 07:27 05:59 80 111
Corymbia Corymbia 07:33 06:15 82 113
Mike Harper Mike Harper 07:35 06:36 87 120
endafk 07:40 05:44 74 102
nigel 07:40 04:45 61 84
Jamie Fox 07:52 03:48 48 66
Desdeeloeste Desdeeloeste 07:54 06:00 75 104
docg 07:55 06:31 82 113
CrystalPip 07:57 05:57 74 102
alastair52 08:03 05:52 72 100
td349 08:04 04:11 51 70
Aldus 08:16 06:40 80 111
TomHerbert 08:17 05:35 67 93
Sheen 08:21 06:59 83 115
Rowleyrag 08:23 08:11 97 134
John Arnold 08:28 06:50 80 111
ratterz 08:36 06:48 79 109
Jamescheck JamesCheck 08:39 06:34 75 104
goblin 08:42 06:41 76 105
Jeeves 08:45 07:38 87 120
crucihacker 08:48 07:34 85 118
vinyl12345 vinyl1 08:48 08:03 91 126
mattindoha 08:50 08:45 99 137
Cuppa378 09:01 06:04 67 93
kath 09:02 07:59 88 122
luxtonj61 09:07 06:44 73 101
mjsaunders9 09:09 07:01 76 105
timbo 09:10 06:43 73 101
hemantyd 09:11 05:13 56 77
Mkgnao Mkgnao 09:14 08:24 90 125
crosswordian 09:19 10:07 108 150
raincloud 09:22 05:56 63 87
ofarrell 09:23 07:55 84 116
ezoredfox 09:26 04:15 45 62
f4rch 09:29 08:04 85 118
Manuel1 09:33 07:44 80 111
Deezzaa Deezzaa 09:43 06:52 70 97
Nigel1953 09:49 07:08 72 100
Coffell 09:50 07:25 75 104
Cryptique 09:57 06:09 61 84
cerds 09:57 06:14 62 86
FelicityTT 10:11 06:12 60 83
moirconsult 10:17 03:34 34 47
Pendrov 10:20 08:26 81 112
annikins 10:26 07:48 74 102
Nuck_the_king 10:27 08:54 85 118
piltdown man 10:37 05:35 52 72
Troothful 10:44 05:33 51 70
russellcannon 10:45 06:15 58 80
TonyN6 10:57 09:10 83 115
starstruck starstruck_au 11:04 05:22 48 66
Cedric Statherby 11:17 07:11 63 87
simjt simjt 11:18 11:34 102 141
SMSEsq 11:23 12:42 111 154
symbenall2 12:08 09:09 75 104
alistair.boere 12:13 05:33 45 62
youngbaz 12:17 08:25 68 94
Struwa Struwa 12:18 08:03 65 90
Captain Burnaby 12:22 05:27 44 61
rlowin2 12:34 11:00 87 120
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 12:46 08:10 63 87
chabuduo chabuduo 12:48 07:04 55 76
flashman flashman 12:52 09:28 73 101
tyrotim tyrotim 13:03 10:11 78 108
jackk.larg 13:04 10:36 81 112
mpbthorpe 13:09 06:38 50 69
The Real Steve Snackman 13:52 05:31 39 54
Adele Bright 13:53 04:53 35 48
Doofenschmirtz Doofenschmirtz 14:35 14:51 101 140
Mendes Mendesest 14:59 07:25 49 68
MichaelE 15:19 07:33 49 68
kfb20 16:01 09:57 62 86
Xebeq 16:21 09:00 55 76
Holly O 16:27 10:06 61 84
thechan 16:32 11:13 67 93
Mark from Ipswich 16:43 09:02 54 75
david.14587 16:49 06:27 38 52
tomtom2 17:00 14:07 83 115
james 17:34 11:08 63 87
hcmsm 17:49 08:14 46 63
New Driver 18:18 06:47 37 51
keithandginnybirrell 18:25 10:30 57 79
TonyK 19:40 13:49 70 97
winelover 20:55 11:16 53 73
ian.shepherd 21:22 16:20 76 105
pfalloon 21:24 07:00 32 44
bangsar DearHector 21:27 10:09 47 65
philby 21:52 14:17 65 90
david 23:20 15:05 64 88
pamelalewis51 24:31 16:36 67 93
shankar 25:35 13:14 51 70
Askani 26:42 11:56 44 61
Damien Grover 28:22 08:07 28 38
DrAnatomist 30:25 13:11 43 59
Aresbiscuits 30:57 15:23 49 68
IanV IanV 33:27 17:32 52 72
dave 34:35 30:41 88 122
Jay_W 38:02 17:14 45 62
revolting tonic 41:48 33:42 80 111
mcfarl 46:44 54:12 115 159

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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