Quick SNITCH

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

Times Quick Cryptic Crossword 3037

Date 10 July 2025
Number 3037
Setter Shay
Day of week Thursday
NITCH 98
Count of ref solvers 75
Ref solvers excluded with errors 21
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 3037

* 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
Paul Gilbert 02:14 02:06 94 95
cmjhutton 02:18 02:16 98 100
Jason 02:35 03:09 121 123
verlaine 02:38 02:07 80 81
mistigris 02:39 03:07 117 119
Magoo 02:46 02:48 101 103
hilarym 02:50 03:08 110 112
aphis99 aphis99 02:51 02:38 92 93
Flimmy flammy 03:11 03:42 116 118
richard 03:37 03:41 101 103
Ciolf 03:37 03:06 85 86
markdobell 03:39 04:49 131 133
Heyesey 03:41 03:58 107 109
Amoeba89 03:55 03:23 86 87
AlanS 03:55 03:43 94 95
SimonAnthony 04:04 03:37 88 89
glheard 04:06 03:45 91 92
Deane Short 04:13 03:08 74 75
lickert 04:15 04:34 107 109
MikeOsborne 04:17 04:32 105 107
Roscoe 04:32 05:28 120 122
chindit 04:37 07:00 151 154
EricK 04:38 04:28 96 97
tilbee 04:40 04:32 97 98
lucyg43484 04:41 04:41 100 102
Freemers 04:44 05:07 108 110
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 04:46 07:29 156 159
scrabbler 04:51 04:45 97 98
canismiser 04:52 06:22 130 132
Jon Delfin 04:52 03:52 79 80
andrewlake 04:53 03:44 76 77
LouWeed LouWeed 04:53 07:30 153 156
andy 04:55 05:11 105 107
fshephe 04:56 03:58 80 81
Liari 04:57 05:19 107 109
JayEm 05:01 04:12 83 84
neilr neilr 05:02 05:10 102 104
March 05:03 03:39 72 73
Ed freshpot 05:04 06:25 126 128
Aybee 05:07 04:40 91 92
Aly Duncan 05:07 05:39 110 112
nina s 05:10 08:02 155 158
Zander 05:14 06:31 124 126
Squallaby 05:15 05:40 107 109
babka 05:21 05:44 107 109
AndyKnott321 05:27 04:36 84 85
Vannyx 05:30 06:22 115 117
rrricharrrd 05:32 05:15 94 95
Riche Riche 05:32 05:56 107 109
whichcraft 05:36 03:55 69 70
Paul Hammond Paul Hammond 05:38 05:34 98 100
esmeralda 05:38 06:00 106 108
Finzi 05:39 06:18 111 113
chriswestontour 05:47 06:19 109 111
Encota 05:47 05:23 93 94
Rabbitoh galspray 05:49 04:30 77 78
SBQuick 05:54 05:16 89 90
KarenR 05:57 04:12 70 71
Looch 05:58 08:26 141 143
hopkinb hopkinb 06:07 05:18 86 87
Anomalospiza 06:10 05:53 95 96
PGooden 06:15 05:46 92 93
plusjeremy (Jeremy Weissmann) plusjeremy 06:21 09:23 147 150
Dzhigit 06:34 07:21 111 113
julian_w 06:35 07:43 117 119
jimwetzler 06:39 05:49 87 88
Curarist 06:42 09:33 142 144
edwards.robert1 06:53 05:00 72 73
mjsaunders9 06:56 05:06 73 74
Willie F 07:05 07:31 106 108
James P 07:05 06:27 91 92
Nangle 07:08 09:09 128 130
Gussie 07:08 05:53 82 83
Aloysius 07:11 06:53 95 96
robertL 07:13 09:30 131 133
Jamie Fox 07:15 07:40 105 107
robinh 07:18 07:24 101 103
Mike Harper Mike Harper 07:35 10:32 138 140
Dvynys Dvynys 07:45 09:31 122 124
Corymbia Corymbia 07:47 05:23 69 70
Doyler 07:49 08:42 111 113
ChrisBrea 07:51 11:35 147 150
1234 07:51 08:47 111 113
plett11 Plett11 08:14 09:06 110 112
ulaca ulaca 08:25 09:24 111 113
Templar Redux Templar 08:30 08:31 100 102
hemantyd 08:36 08:44 101 103
johndun John Dunleavy 08:40 07:07 82 83
vinyl12345 vinyl1 08:40 10:33 121 123
goblin 08:43 08:21 95 96
Cuppa378 08:46 08:43 99 101
RPY 08:52 11:58 134 136
FelicityTT 09:01 07:32 83 84
Mkgnao Mkgnao 09:04 09:41 106 108
nigelmzzz 09:06 08:18 91 92
dec 09:07 08:34 93 94
f4rch 09:09 05:35 61 62
dedly 09:18 09:22 100 102
Edprof 09:38 08:49 91 92
Solfynn 09:39 08:52 91 92
Word Psmith 09:43 09:44 100 102
piltdown man 10:06 13:44 135 137
intentional rounding 10:10 05:52 57 58
Birdingbob 10:12 09:48 96 97
Alias Noble 10:29 08:30 81 82
starstruck starstruck_au 10:49 07:00 64 65
The Mighty Salmon 10:56 10:29 95 96
symbenall2 11:11 09:55 88 89
simjt simjt 11:21 13:34 119 121
Cedric Statherby 11:34 15:46 136 138
The Real Steve Snackman 11:38 12:20 106 108
maisiemae 11:43 11:02 94 95
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 11:52 11:17 95 96
BertieVII 12:14 12:45 104 106
chabuduo chabuduo 12:22 09:54 80 81
kapietro kapietro 12:39 10:21 81 82
mpbthorpe 14:13 13:02 91 92
Muckypuppy 14:25 09:30 65 66
Steve Wood 14:31 10:34 72 73
kfb20 14:58 16:05 107 109
pfalloon 15:15 56:08 368 375
Doofenschmirtz Doofenschmirtz 15:25 15:08 98 100
horners1974 Jonathan Hornby 15:45 09:35 60 61
david.14587 15:55 16:24 103 105
thechan 16:27 23:59 145 147
danielbluebisson Blue92 16:40 21:31 129 131
Narayanan 16:56 12:34 74 75
tomtom2 17:47 16:09 90 91
TonyK 19:27 18:32 95 96
bangsar DearHector 21:12 29:17 138 140
Damien Grover 21:14 08:51 41 41
Askani 21:15 14:54 70 71
Hazelnut 21:47 13:51 63 64
philby 22:00 25:06 114 116
dominic.c-b 22:21 18:12 81 82
pamelalewis51 23:10 15:35 67 68
mozbadel mozbadel 24:24 28:46 117 119
MrMonro 24:59 13:59 55 56
Flora Garden 25:01 22:24 89 90
jlloyd4424 26:32 23:35 88 89
shankar 33:03 19:51 60 61
kevinlimanta 35:46 30:00 83 84
revolting tonic 38:45 32:38 84 85
mcfarl 46:44 30:42 65 66

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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