Congratulations Sabers, Congratulations USA (Solution No. 3,266)

Sabers won an individual event for the first time this weekend (he went 5-0), while the USA national hockey team won the IIHF World Junior Championship.  It was a great week for USA Hockey officials too: Harry Dumas, who is an officiating instructor for us in the Atlantic District, and his partners all worked the Russia-Sweden semi-final and the Russia-Canada bronze medal game (they weren't allowed to work the gold medal game because the USA was playing in it).  Even Matt Leaf, our national director of officiating, got a piece of the bronze: he was the video replay official.  Congratulations to all of you.

Did anyone else see a sixth piece of equipment in the solutions?  It split across the two parts of a solution, but it's pretty necessary too.  All the theme answers are highlighted in the solution below.

Themework: 1a, 10a, 16a, 28a, 29a (and an honorable mention to Sabers’ other piece of equipment in 23a!)

Political content: 13a, 29a.  There might have been an opportunity to cross-reference 22d to 8d.

Musical content: 16a (disputable), 23a, 7d

Solution and annotation below the fold.

  

Final standings of the first Y14 Philly Cup fencing event of 2013:  Sabers, Storm, and Elena.

Team USA in Ufa, Russia

Legend: "*" anagram; "~" sounds like; "<" letters reversed; "( )" letters inserted; "_" or lower case: letters deleted; "†" explicit in the clue, “^” first letter or letters, “{“ relocated letter or letters

Across

1a	SL(EDGE | ^H^)AMMER	EDGE (“an advantage”) + ^H^ide (first letter indicated by “initially”) contained in (“in”) SLAMMER (“jail)
10a	PUC(K)E | RING UP	^K^iss (first letter indicated by “at first”) contained in (“in”) PUCE (“reddish”) + RING UP (“call on the phone”)
11a, 27a	GOA | LIE	GOA (“Indian state”) + LIE (“distortion”) Goa is a small state on the Arabian Sea.  It used to be a Portuguese colony and is known for its fish curries.
12a	NOR | MAL	NOR (“not”) + MAL (“bad, as a prefix”)
13a	REP | ROACH	REP (“republican”) + ROACH (“insect”)
15a	_HEFT	_t_HEFT (“crime,” omission of first letter indicated by “eliminating the initiator”)
16a	BUT | TIN | *SKIS	BUT (“barring”) + TIN (“metal”) + *KISS (anagram indicated by “arrangement”)
19a	POLE | S AP | ART	POLE (“Eastern European”) + SAP (“to undermine”) + ART (“craft”)
21a	{P{LEA	LEA{P{ (“jump,” transfer of last letter indicated by “back to front”)
23a	~BASS VIOL	~BASE VILE No, it’s the violas that are wretched and disgusting.
25a	*NITW | IT	*TWIN (anagram indicated by “misplaced”) + IT (“thing”)
27a	see 11a
28a	*C(HEAPS)KATES	HEAPS (“piles”) contained (“hide in”) *CASKET (anagram indicated by “broken”) At the rate she’s growing, I have to be a cheapskate to keep Bangle in skates.
29a	W | INTER S | PORTS	W (“George Bush”) + INTERS (“buries”) + PORTS (“wines”)

Down

2d	LEE | WAY	LEE (Harper Lee, author) + WAY (“technique”)
3d	DA | IS	IS (†) following (“supporting”) DA (“Putin’s affirmative” or Russian for “yes”)  Nice to see something other than the obvious anagram for cluing this word
4d	*EGGBEATERS	*GARB TEES EG (anagram indicated by “off”)
5d	*ASPIRIN	*PAIN SIR (anagram indicated by “cured”) Exclamation point since “cured” is in both definition and wordplay.
6d	MA(G) | MA	MA | MA (“mother”, taken twice thanks to the plural), containing (“surrounding”) G (“grand”) Creative, but not hard to parse out.  Shouldn’t elicit too many complaints, right Hot?
7d	_REACH	_p_REACH (“pontificate”, omission of P indicated by “not quietly”)
8d	OPEN S | HOP	OPENS (“starts) + HOP (“a dance”)
9d	S | CORNFUL	^S^peech (first letter indicated by “introduction”) + CORNFUL (coinage, full of ‘corn’, or cheap sentimentality) Fine line to tread when using these coinages: they’re an easy out for constructors, but acceptable if it’s a clever-sounding creation.
14d	*DUE PROCESS	*COURSE SPED (anagram indicated by “criminal”) This one earns an exclamation point because the whole clue works as both definition and wordplay.
17d	*KILOWATT	*WALK TO IT (anagram indicated by “unsteadily”)
18d	S(MAR | _T)ASS	MAR (“to spoil”) + bra^T^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) contained in (“interrupting”) SASS (“back talk”)
20d	_SEVICHE_	milo_SEVIC HEA_rtily (hidden word indicated by “eating”) This is an alternate spelling: I has having a hard time with 19a because I had inadvertently started 20d with the more common “C.”  The “C” spelling has 20 times more Google hits than the “S” spelling.
22d	PICK | ET	PICK (“select”) + ET (“alien”)
23d	*B(Y)LAW	*BAWL (anagram indicated by “uncontrollably”) containing (“about”) Y (“club”) Do they have special exercise classes at the Y for crossword constructors?  Or maybe a basketball league?
24d	SHEEN	Double definition
26d	_U_P_D_O	jUmPeD tO (omission of alternate letters indicated by “disregarding the odds”) True crosswordese, this entry, but less to complain about when you at least have an uncommon wordplay.