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The ‘rows’ read from left to right, XWfan, not boustrophedon. Your method would make the ‘continuous bus route‘ slightly more plausible, but that’s not the way the setter chose to do it. In his defence, however, his system makes it easier to trace out the route. One step down is always 13, so for bigger numbers that saves a lot of counting.

Thank you rad ... i will have another go now!

Ginge and Rad, Apologies for the delay in replying and thank you for the help. I will have another look later or tomorrow morning and if that doesn't work I will take you up on your kind offer Ginge.

Now done. My repeated mistake in the first place was to miscount from W and I 'corrected' that by starting in the wrong place.

Another great puzzle - 7 in a row.

But I cant parse Prides or As in, and is the clue for Anthea accurate?

The wordplay appears to be ok in both cases -
PRIES[T] around D(utch) - extra[T]
AN[O]THE(r) 'snubbed' - 'before' A(cademy) -extra [O]

I have a different word following AS.

Hi Grunger,

I originally had this wrong, I'd put AS SO but then remembered TAO (which I always forget!) with A as the extra letter.

Drxx, Brendan

Thanks for the explanations. I didnt know about Tao and I see now that snubbed means drop last letter.

Very happy that all clues and counting work. Agree with those who said it was a brilliant puzzle. I didnt mind the moving stops as it seemed the only way it would work.

Thanks Harribobs!

You're right, grunger - the only way it works is by not conforming to how a bus route operates in the real world, and if rad hadn't pointed that out I might still be wondering how to make it work as it should.

Even taking an undefined point initially leading upto and then (on the next circuit) +1 square beyond the depot can't work because the AD on the next row equalises that offset. Or trying to separate out the depot via a diagonal move (as if it was a bus garage outside of the normal route - where a letter could either take you back to the depot or on to/beyond the first stop) left me with at least two circuits too few before the stops were simply repeated - and that's after taking two circuits where the 'bus' was only requested to stop at alternative points on the route, something that just might happen in reality.

I don't think that a computer programme that manages to spell out a single word really compensates for the unreality of this puzzle - but I'm not not keen on computer generated ideas at the best of times, and I admit to not appreciating the technical difficulties involved.

A weekly deliveroo route, a postman's round, even the Tesco van dropping off groceries on its normal route - just maybe! But a bus route? Never! This idea only works if hope triumphs over experience.

drxx

Thanks for that fascinating analysis! It was very interesting to read. I don't know how London buses operate but I suppose they are the same as in other places.

I have used lots of buses but the only one I can think of that is similar to the puzzle was the Women's Night Bus. Women had to book in advance and get on it at a normal stop, but you could be dropped anywhere on the route, offical stop or not. It did circuits (possibly five a day) and started and finished at the depot.

So not a London bus, but fairly similar to the puzzle.