Quick SNITCH

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

Times Quick Cryptic Crossword 3034

Date 07 July 2025
Number 3034
Day of week Monday
NITCH 75
Count of ref solvers 32
Ref solvers excluded with errors 2
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link Not yet available

* 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
verlaine 02:38 02:15 85 113
aphis99 aphis99 02:51 02:49 98 130
Ciolf 03:37 02:26 67 89
Heyesey 03:41 03:03 82 109
glheard 04:06 03:53 94 125
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 04:46 03:50 80 106
LouWeed LouWeed 04:53 05:24 110 146
fshephe 04:56 03:57 80 106
JayEm 05:01 03:36 71 94
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 05:38 04:56 87 116
Anomalospiza 06:10 03:57 64 85
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 06:21 05:56 93 124
Adrian Cobb 06:34 07:16 110 146
Dzhigit 06:34 04:48 73 97
mjsaunders9 06:56 04:50 69 92
Kevin Gregg Kevin Gregg 07:13 06:10 85 113
DamienKnapma 07:29 04:42 62 82
Corymbia Corymbia 07:47 05:46 74 98
vefatica vefatica 08:56 07:45 86 114
piltdown man 10:06 06:33 64 85
intentional rounding 10:10 05:19 52 69
starstruck starstruck_au 10:49 05:28 50 66
symbenall2 11:11 07:54 70 93
The Real Steve Snackman 11:38 07:10 61 81
Dr. Memory 11:41 10:01 85 113
alistair.boere 11:45 10:10 86 114
Hugster 12:49 07:06 55 73
pfalloon 15:15 12:44 83 110
david.14587 15:55 10:00 62 82
RPE10538 RPE10538 16:35 13:02 78 104
tomtom2 17:47 09:15 52 69
Askani 21:15 11:44 55 73
philby 22:00 15:30 70 93
pamelalewis51 23:10 25:42 110 146
judi 23:18 08:46 37 49
maryht 23:25 10:46 45 60
paulmcl 24:28 11:38 47 62
shankar 33:03 15:32 46 61
revolting tonic 38:45 22:52 59 78
mcfarl 46:44 30:05 64 85
crossworder 48:57 27:55 57 76

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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