Traffic roundabouts in England go to the left (clockwise if you’re looking down), I believe, whereas American roundabouts go to the right/counterclockwise. Last I checked, there was no innate correctness to clockwise rotation. Now, I think it’s kind of bogus to (a) rely on an Anglicism and (b) equate “counterclockwise” with going the “wrong” way. The black square between them holds the lock (ANTIClockWISE).
And looking back at the grid, to the right of ANTIC is WISE. So, if it’s not the key SLOT, what is it? Remember that oddball clue for ANTIC, at 71a in the vault? Something like ? (I don’t have a copy of the puzzle handy, just my answer grid.) With some nudging from pannonica, I Googled “counterclockwise in British English” or something along those lines, and learnt that “anticlockwise” is the British equivalent. It’s an unfortunate red herring, and I think it’s the sort of inelegant confounder that Matt Gaffney strives to keep out of his Weekly Crossword Contest puzzles.
I’ll bet at least 20% of the entrants went with SLOT, part of SLOTTED at 69a and adjacent to the vault. And where do you put that key to open the vault and get the gold? The last rebus square holds the KEY (in JOCKEY/KEYBOARDS). The challenge was to identify the thing you wanted to retrieve from the vault in the middle of the grid (that’s the GOLD in STAR), along with the seven spots to avoid-MINE in JASMINE/DETERMINES, TRAP in FLYTRAP/VON TRAPP, ASP in SIT A SPELL/ASPEN, PIT in TAR PIT/PITTMAN, LAVA in BRATISLAVA/LAVA LAMP, LION in ANTLION/DANDELION, and BEAR in REDBEARD/SHE-BEAR. There are rebus squares scattered throughout the grid. Sunday NY Times crossword solution, 10 21 12 “Bypassing Security”
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