Quick SNITCH

A quantitative guide to the degree of difficulty of the Times Quick Cryptic Crossword
Found crossword for 2025-08-30

Times Quick Cryptic Crossword 3081

Date 30 August 2025
Number 3081
Setter Joker
Day of week Saturday
NITCH 161
Count of ref solvers 76
Ref solvers excluded with errors 6
Link to crossword View Crossword*
Times for the Times Link 3081

* 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 02:35 04:31 174 108
mistigris 02:37 03:31 134 83
aphis99 aphis99 02:47 05:35 200 124
Flimmy flammy 03:16 04:53 149 92
Ciolf 03:31 07:11 204 126
Heyesey 03:35 05:13 145 90
Amoeba89 03:47 04:51 128 79
Kinghedger 03:56 05:05 129 80
Topical Tim Topical Tim 04:03 08:39 213 132
lickert 04:18 05:38 131 81
Umpire 04:19 06:25 148 91
Bluejacket 04:25 04:35 103 63
fshephe 04:36 05:01 109 67
Tom Stubbs Tom Stubbs 04:44 06:24 135 83
Freemers 04:45 07:28 157 97
Jon Delfin 04:48 15:02 313 194
philjordan1147 BUSMAN 04:49 06:23 132 81
scrabbler 04:49 08:07 168 104
andrewlake 04:51 07:04 145 90
LouWeed LouWeed 04:58 06:17 126 78
Ed freshpot 04:59 07:50 157 97
Aybee 05:07 07:10 140 86
Tibthorpe 05:08 10:11 198 122
7dPenguin 7dPenguin 05:14 07:31 143 88
rrricharrrd 05:18 07:50 147 91
mcrossib1 05:36 08:21 149 92
Finzi 05:37 07:31 133 82
Looch 05:52 08:01 136 84
Anomalospiza 06:00 07:31 125 77
Tudds 06:24 09:07 142 88
Adrian Cobb 06:29 07:46 119 73
endafk 06:45 07:47 115 71
James P 06:57 13:06 188 116
Nangle 06:59 09:36 137 85
uvofiz 06:59 08:33 122 75
Jamie Fox 07:04 14:33 205 127
DamienKnapma 07:13 07:11 99 61
robinh 07:16 13:33 186 115
Mike Harper Mike Harper 07:35 12:51 169 104
Corymbia Corymbia 07:37 09:58 130 80
smalley552 07:39 15:09 198 122
mjwiseman 07:49 14:58 191 118
plett11 Plett11 08:04 11:08 138 85
hemantyd 08:23 13:16 158 98
ulaca ulaca 08:24 27:06 322 200
Jeeves 08:29 11:57 140 86
goblin 08:38 14:23 166 103
m5harp 08:46 13:10 150 93
Mkgnao Mkgnao 08:47 11:09 126 78
crosswordian 08:52 16:58 191 118
nigelmzzz 08:59 14:06 156 96
f4rch 08:59 18:05 201 124
gsriordan52 09:01 13:32 150 93
crucihacker 09:07 21:53 240 149
barracuda barracuda 09:25 12:44 135 83
intentional rounding 09:33 15:03 157 97
Birdingbob 09:35 16:54 176 109
phatman 09:56 21:34 217 134
Mike Mansbridge 10:12 100:45 987 613
Alias Noble 10:15 13:29 131 81
The Real Steve Snackman 11:09 18:11 163 101
simjt simjt 11:28 15:07 131 81
WordPlodder BletchleyReject 11:33 14:10 122 75
BertieVII 11:55 17:45 148 91
alistair.boere 12:01 14:43 122 75
Hugster 12:12 29:13 239 148
suethepotterer 12:25 19:43 158 98
Sonofjim 12:45 32:06 251 155
ifincham2 13:08 23:43 180 111
Steve Wood 13:14 22:30 170 105
mpbthorpe 13:19 17:17 129 80
Muckypuppy 13:40 18:52 138 85
Charpentier 14:01 17:08 122 75
kfb20 14:17 51:06 357 221
Xebeq 14:38 26:23 180 111
New Driver 15:06 20:13 133 82
RPE10538 RPE10538 15:57 25:55 162 100
tomtom2 17:27 33:22 191 118
david 18:18 23:40 129 80
TonyK 18:30 30:50 166 103
pfalloon 21:33 27:35 127 78
dominic.c-b 21:38 24:30 113 70
philby 22:00 26:01 118 73
Flora Garden 25:14 21:07 83 51
mcfarl 45:38 88:20 193 119

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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