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Yes, grunger - fairly similar but not very typical (still - thanks for the insight, it's an interesting possibility).

It's fair to say I'm not predisposed to liking this kind of puzzle but you might be - can't please everyone every time!

Sorry to hear that you're mostly disappointed with the puzzle's scenario. It's actually better than my original submission which had a passenger sitting on the bus for five circuits before getting off at their destination. But I don't think the scenario is as ludicrous as you're making out. It's a normal timetable, and you can get on the bus anywhere along the route, but of course the driver won't make a stop where there's nobody waiting to board. The unlikely thing is that on this particular day it just so happened that, in the five different circuits, people got on at different places.

Hi Harribobs,

Thanks so much for taking the time to comment, personally speaking I like puzzles that have a very 'visual' endgame, like this one. Was there any reason you chose Chingford as the bus route, or was it random?

Not quite random, brendan. Different letters need a different number of rows in the grid, and some letters don't look good when blocking cells (eg K, V). The letters of Chingford fitted well together in the space.

Hello Harribobs, it's very good of you to comment - and a noble effort justifying the bus routine (although I'm not sure I can reconcile bus stops lined up in threes along the route).

I think you're putting far too much emphasis on my negative reaction - for the most part the reaction here has been very positive (rad had doubts about the veracity of the idea but, even then, thought it was a brilliant puzzle!).

As I tried to explain, my annoyance came from spending a long time trying to get around a problem I had with the realism of the concept - it's a particular failure of mine to put a great deal of emphasis on the scenario rather than the puzzle itself.

After spending many enjoyable hours on this I've filled in all the answers, except for 35d. It would seem to be LANA, which is a lake. but what's with the sand eel? Assuming I'm right, can anyone assist with the parsing?

Hi Crimbo,

It's LANT which is a variant spelling of 'Launce' (sand eel) (c)AN'T + L(ake) with C as the extra letter.

Harribobs

I am thrilled that you have come on to explain things. I think it is generally agreed that this was a brilliant puzzle, although a couple of solvers thought it was unrealistic. But as you say, it could happen, although where I live, people tend to get on and off at every stop.

We do appreciate the lengths that you and other setters go to create interesting and challenging puzzles. I am happy to spend most of Sunday doing Them. We are on a run of terrific EVs and here we have said how brilliant they have been, and this was certainly one of them

So thank you so much!

Thanks Brendan. Now I can get on with the counting!

Good luck Crimbo, I took a couple of attempts to get it right and it does take a lot of concentration, but the end is well worth it:-)