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A similar story for me. On 27a, I was trying to fit in old you - thee - until the forum put me right. Then 19d dropped out. I'd got 18a, checked it was the only possible answer, was thinking gram was tiny but needed the forum to enlighten me. I'm no good at the Spoonerism clues but the Helsinki hint helped as did the hint for 5a which was my LOI. Lots of good clues again!

US puzzle sources I overlooked:
The NY Post (owned by Rupert Murdoch) used to have a rather good daily cryptic taken from the London Times (perhaps Times archives). I no longer read that paper (on various general principles), so don't know current status.
I've seen threads on this forum about Wall St. Journal puzzles (another Murdoch paper I don't read) but am unaware of details.
[I sometimes solve FT cryptics, so my Murdoch stance is not fully consistent...]

Reading back, the helpful hints came from Brendan so thanks Brendan!

Hi Will4jan,

Thanks for that, I really appreciate it 😃

Thanks for the info Geeker. I have tried the NY Times xwords. They are pretty much just straight clues, with a few oblique ones thrown in, and you need a god knowledge of American sports, institutions and expressions etc so can be v challenging!

Femmenoire,
Not the regular daily NY Times crosswords (which I started out on but now don't care for). The weekly NYT Sunday magazine has a "special" puzzle. Most of the time they're larger grid versions of the daily, but sometimes acrostics and occasionally cryptics. I doubt there's more than one cryptic a month, however, and one likely would have to subscribe to see it.

Good to know thx

Fun, found it a bit stretching (more than yesterday's Guardian Prize, Brendan I see what you mean) and I had to get lots of help from all of you, many thanks.
Two points of particular interest:
- after our agonising over yesterday's 29A, interesting to get a very different cafe beverage offered here! What next, I wonder? (My partner tells me that aqua appears frequently in the codewords)
- I don't think I've ever heard 4d referred to without the two-syllable (diminutive) firm of the first word, I certainly would always use the extra syllable, and I'm surprised nobody here has commented on that. But maybe my family just has weird traditions?
Thanks again for the help and companionship

... and thanks to Everyman himself of course!

Thanks Luko,

4d - That's a good point - I hadn't even thought about it but you're right, it is usually (always?) referred to by the 2 syllable first word.