New ref (Solution No. 3,295)

Between-bouts coaching is for referees as well as for fencers.
Jacob, coaching for Haverford, shares some tactical ideas with
Darwin while Sabers is debriefed by Charles.  

We now officially have another referee in the Mitchell family. Sabers passed his test and made his formal refereeing debut in the Y14 tournament at his home club Sunday.  Then after fencing in the open event and delivering his best performance to date (just one touch short of earning an E rating), he worked the team competition in tandem with Charles Green. 

Charles is a national-level ref and a fine mentor as well.  His mechanics are impeccable and his demeanor balances calm with firmness. Those are excellent qualities to have whatever sport you’re officiating.

The team final was Liberty vs. Haverford College: with rated fencers on both sides but very friendly. That made it an excellent situation for Sabers to get experience in a higher level competition.  Thanks to Charles’s coaching, Sabers looked much more poised, had the confidence to make the close call on a two-light touch, and as far as I could tell, didn’t miss any calls.  Marshall was pleased enough with the job that he’s extended Sabers an invitation to work a collegiate tournament next month.  Pretty good for a high school sophomore.

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/176225/puzzle-no-3295 

Themework:  None that I found

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle): Moderate, aside from 21d (see note below)

Political/musical content: 19a
In 1961, Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote a famous poem commemorating the Babi Yar massacre, pushing the envelope of acceptable expression in Khruschev’s USSR.  Shostakovich later set the text to music in his Thirteenth Symphony, which was harshly criticized by the authorities until Yevtushenko revised the text, making it more sympathetic to the Russians where it had previously condemned both Soviet and Nazi anti-semitism.
Like Shostakovich (one of my favorite composers), Yevtushenko constantly had to walk a fine line in order to criticize repression and abuses in Soviet Russia and not be ostracized totally, have their works banned, and be sent to prison.  The best of their works are full of that tension.

Solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,295 below the fold.

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

Across

8a	<_SARCASTIC_<	<defi_CITS A CRAS_s< (reversal indicated by “reversing,” hidden word indicated by “cover for”)
9a	CO(R)AL	COAL (“ember”) containing (“at the center”) ^R^oasting (anagram indicated by “initially”)
10a	*A A MILNE	*AN E-MAIL (anagram indicated by “confused”)
11a	*INROADS	*RAIDS NO (anagram indicated by “offensive”)
12a	*DIET PEPSI	*DEEP SIP IT (anagram indicated by “not very healthy”)
14a	<ENAC< | T	<CANE< (“a type of sugar,” reversal indicated by “back”) + ^T^ea (first letter indicated by “start of”)
16a	*REPRESENTATIVES	*VENERATE PRIESTS (anagram indicated by “absurdly”)
19a	_KOREA_	Yevtushen_KO REA_d (hidden word indicated by “inside”)
20a	*ENDURANCE	*CREED A NUN (anagram indicated by “heretical”)
22a	TAN | DOOR	TAN (“switch”) + DOOR (“access”) The use of a secondary definition turned this from easy to challenging.  Spots like this are where you can dial in the desired degree of difficulty.
24a	_ANGUISH	_l_ANGUISH (“weaken,” omission of first letter indicated by “after decapitation”)
26a	EL | VIS_	EL (“article in Spain”) + VIS_a_ (“permission to travel,” omission of last letter indicated by “curtailed”)
27a	TRIM | *ESTER	TRIM (“decorate”) + *TREES (anagram indicated by “strangely”)

Down

1d	I | SLANDER	I (†) + SLANder (“smear”)
2d	GRI(*M REA)PER	GRIPER (“one who bellyaches” containing (“about”)  *MARE (anagram indicated by “wild”)
3d	HAIL	Double definition
4d	~STREEP	~STRIP (variant homophone indicated by “speaking in a stereotypical French accent”) I thought this one was cute.  The usual suspects will complain.
5d	ACTIVIST	Pun on ACT IV (next to last act of a five-act play, like many of Shakespeare’s)
6d	ARE | A	ARE (“love”) preceding (“over”) A (†)
7d	C(LOSE)T	LOSE (“face defeat”) contained in (“in”) CT (“Connecticut”)
9d	CARP | ENTER	CARP (“complaint”) preceding (“over”) ENTER (“log”) Marginal, but proper grammar: “carp” is rarely used as a noun.
13d	*P(RED)ATORS	*PASTOR (anagram indicated by “manaical”) containing (“captures”) RED (†)
15d	AD | VENT | IS | T_S	AD (“commercial”) + VENT (“opening”) + IS (†) + ^T^rader^S^ (first and last letters indicated by “framework”) All of the individual pieces are easy, but by having so many components in the clue, it becomes more challenging
17d	EXEC | RATE	Pun: “price” (RATE) of “suit” (EXEC)
18d	SHE | P(HER)D	SHE (“woman”) + PD (“police department”) containing (“nabs”) HER (†) Using “police department” for PD made this particularly easy: another way to clue those letters might have been better.
19d	KIT | <TEN<	KIT (“collection of items”) + <NET< (“to trap,” reversal indicated by “returning”)
21d	<DE | ASIL<	<LISA (†) + ED (†)< (reversal indicated by “turned”) Blechh.  Never seen that word before, but I had the intersecting letters and the wordplay so I just had to trust them and then Google the result.
23d	NOVA	Double definition
25d	G L E N	^G^irl’s ^L^ike ^E^xciting ^N^ot (initials indicated by “at first”)