The first blog in the Fifteensquared database was published on 1st November 2006 when neildubya blogged Guardian 23910, followed the next day by nmsindy explaining Independent 6254.
In the intervening years, other puzzle series have been added and the number of people who have written one or more blogs for the website has risen to 73.
We have reached a milestone today. One of the current blogging team completed his 1000th blog this morning when duncanshiell published the blog for Azed 2665.
Duncan joined the team in November 2007, at the age of 60, a few months after retiring from full-time work. For the first 18 months he blogged an Inquisitor puzzle every 4 weeks or so and a Guardian Genius in December 2008, before writing his first daily newspaper blog in May 2009, for Independent 7028 . Since then, he has branched out into a number of puzzles in other dailies and weekend papers.
Duncan’s 1000 blogs comprise:
| Crossword | Number of blogs |
| Independent | 625 |
| Inquisitor | 210 |
| Azed | 102 |
| Guardian Genius | 29 |
| Guardian | 26 |
| Financial Times | 6 |
| Everyman | 1 |
| Guardian Quiptic | 1 |
| Total | 1000 |
There are other active bloggers closing in on the 1000 figure. Andrew and Eileen are in the 900s, with scchua, Pierre, Pete MacLean, Peter O and John in the 800s. PeeDee retired from blogging in the mid 900s.
As of last Friday morning the number of published blogs for each puzzle series was:
| Crossword | Number of Blogs |
| Independent | 6121 |
| Guardian | 5228 |
| Financial Times | 4860 |
| Inquisitor | 889 |
| Azed | 865 |
| Everyman | 778 |
| Enigmatic Variations | 773 |
| Guardian Quiptic | 677 |
| Private Eye / Cyclops | 420 |
| Beelzebub | 385 |
| Guardian Genius | 191 |
| Slogger and Better puzzles | 43 |
| Sundry puzzles | 22 |
The Independent publishes a Sunday puzzle so its numbers are higher than for The Guardian. The Guardian equivalent of a Sunday puzzle is Azed, published in The Observer, sister paper to the Guardian.
In addition there have been Announcements, Indexes and other Uncategorized posts giving a total of over 21,800 posts in the 17 years that Fifteensquared has been active.
Hopefully, there will many more blogs to come with new bloggers picking up the reins from those who retire. Duncan says he is looking forward to blog number 2000 even though he may well be in his 90s!
Many thanks to duncanshiell for providing the bulk of the information shown above. And congratulations on this achievement.
Congratulations to duncanshiell for your 1,000th. So from what kenmac’s telling me, that makes you 76 in human years. A wonderful achievement and dedication to the cause. Thank you.
Congratulations a ton duncanshiell! Amazing achievement. Your blogs are consistently of very high quality. Looking forward to your 2000th blog (worth the wait). Best wishes!
This site’s collective achievement is indeed something that the whole blogging team can be very very proud of. When the site wasn’t accessible for a few days (not even a week), I realised how much addicted I was to this site. My whole-hearted appreciation to everyone who has contributed to the success of this site. 25000th blog is not very far. Best wishes to all!
Congratulations to duncanshiell for your 1,000th!
It was interesting to see the overall numbers. This site is a really fabulous way to learn more about cryptic crosswords – it has helped me a lot to understand more about clues and parsing. A big thank you to all the bloggers and admin personnel.
Congratulations to Duncan
Many congratulations, Duncan, and thank you.
Congratulations, Duncan.
Writing a standard blog is more time-consuming than it seems. Factor in all those specialist barred puzzles and it becomes an even more impressive achievement. Thank you.
Thanks and congratulations to all these devoted bloggers. And to the mastermind managers in the background. You have provided a wonderful education in crossword solving with much entertainment thrown in. My first encounter with this site was a totally accidental discovery when seeking for the source of a quotation, some years ago. Since then, it has been a treasured daily companion (sorely missed when temporarily not available).
Well done, Duncan!
Bravo Duncan, and thank you!
Given that you’re looking forward to reaching 2000 blogs Duncan, I’d like to echo William@9’s “Bravo” and may I add “Encore!”
While on thanks to all the bloggers who selflessly donate their time. I’ve often considered volunteering to join but every time I think I’ve actually retired another project crops up and I end up going back to work.
Congratulations, Duncan, that’s quite an achievement. Thank you and your blogging confrères for helping me develop my skills as a cruciverbalist. I appreciate it more than you can imagine. I felt bereft when I couldn’t read Fifteensquared during the recent outage. Thank you all.
Great milestone for Duncan, whose blogs on my own and others’ puzzles I’ve always found to be lucid, accurate, and also supplied with a good deal of wit. Really great achievement.
Let me also add my congratulations to Duncan Shiell, whose blogs are superbly detailed, not to mention very colourful.
I echo the comments made by Michelle @ 3
Thanks to you all. Helping me no end on my crossword journey.
Fiona
Congrats Duncan. I’ve done 14 years here albeit with a couple of breaks and not near 400. A sterling effort.
Well done Duncan.
I always appreciate the effort that goes into a blog and am thankful you find ways to explain things I cannot. I remain in awe of the skill and knowledge of all the bloggers.
Congratulations. That’s an impressive achievement. Thanks for the many times you have clarified clues I couldn’t fathom.
Many congratulations, Duncan. I always enjoy your blogs: as others have said, they are amongst the more colourful but also very thorough. That is a remarkable number of outings to have achieved. Many thanks for all your efforts.
Many Congratulations Duncan.
A very impressive number of blogs. We still have quite a way to go to reach that number.
Congratulations and thanks!
Congratulations to Duncan, and to everybody else involved.
Congrats Duncan.
What a grand achievement! Bravo, duncanshiell, you add colour to our 15squared experience.
amazing! congratulations Duncan!
Why is the Times never blogged.?
There is a long-standing and separate site for Times blogs, Phil. timesforthetimes.co.uk
Many congratulations Duncan. A wonderful achievement and it seems we can look forward to many more of your blogs!
Echo the comments from KVa @2.
Finishing (or failing to finish!) the Guardian cryptic is always followed up with a visit to the blog. It’s such a positive part of the day.
So a big ‘thank you’ to all involved, and especially to Duncan. Congrats!
Many congratulations. Thanks to all. Always enjoy a visit to fifteensquared.
A fantastic achievement Duncan – well done. I always appreciate the effort you put into your blogs which explain all the clues in such detail.
Good luck for however many more are to come.
Phil @25 you need timesforthetimes.co.uk
Congratulations, Duncan. I can’t adequately convey the enormous contribution this place and its team of bloggers have made to my understanding of the cryptic art. I continue to derive enormous enjoyment from doing puzzles and still need help or explanations, both of which can reliably be found here.
Perhaps more important than this, however, is the gentle and modest terms in which the blogs are couched, despite being written by people, like you, whose vocabulary and grasp of wordplay exceeds anything I will ever manage. I’m very grateful to you for the many times you have helped me appreciate the brilliance of the setters, too, with insights and parsings that had escaped me.
Thank you so much.
Phil