Two tickets (Solution No. 3,201)

The solution to The Nation puzzle no. 3,201 is below the fold.

Sabers and his coach

Congratulations are in order for Sabers, who had two qualifying events last weekend and succeeded in both.  Saturday was the PMEA District 11 chorus auditions, where he won a place in the three-day chorus festival.

Sunday was the Junior Olympics fencing qualifiers for our division.  This event also functions as the unofficial Philadelphia-area high school fencing championship.  There’s a senior from DVFC who’s the class of the division: he’s won every one of the qualifiers he’s been in, and another senior from our club who’s the number two junior in the division.  After that, there are four others, including Sabers, who on any given day could lay claim to being number three.

So on Sunday, with three qualifying for JOs, Sabers could earn a spot if he competed up to his potential.  He won his first four bouts, including the one against his biggest local rival.  Meanwhile, one of Sabers’s teammates (a sophomore) upset the DVFC senior, leaving Sabers in first place. Sabers who had already beat the sophomore 5-4, lost to the senior and then inexplicably lost a 5-4 bout to the fencer who ended up in last place for the tournament.  That dropped him from the number 2 slot to number 4, and he’d need to win two bouts to get that third place and the ticket to Richmond.

Sabers, Nick, and Nate, again

The quarterfinal was against one of our teammates: Sabers blew him out 15-6.  The semi against the top seed was just as lopsided the other way.  So it came down to the bronze medal bout, which unfortunately had to be against his teammate.  The teammate hot, and took an 8-4 lead in the first period.  I noticed Sabers’ attacks falling short, so I advised him to pay attention to distance and not make his move too soon.  He got a couple of quick touches, and a minute later, I could see his opponent looked mentally exhausted, even though he was still ahead 10-8 in the bout.  Sabers stepped up his tactical approach, took control of the bout, and closed it out with ease, 15-12.  Some ups and downs along the way, but mission accomplished.

Solution to The Nation Puzzle No. 3,201

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/161968/puzzle-no-3201

Difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  Moderate.

Themework: As 22 indicates, the members of the Arab League are all included in the clues

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, “‡” Spoonerism

Across

1a	UN<REEL<	UN (“192 countries”) + <LEER< (“covetous look,” reversal indicated by “back”)
4a	*HOOPSTER	*REPS HOOT (anagram indicated by “rudely”) Reference to Michael Jordan in definition
9a	ANG(L)ER	ANGER (“rage”) containing (“when taking”) ^L^ebanon (first letter indicated by “premier”)
10a	_SLANDERS	_i_SLANDERS (“residents of Comoros,” omission of first letter  indicated by “leaderless”)
12a	D AIRY	^D^jibouti (first letter indicated by “opening”) + AIRY (“lofty”)
13a	INSUL(A)T OR	^A^rab (first letter indicated by “chief ”) contained in (“invested in”) INSULT (“offense”) + OR (†)
15a	*REGALIA	*ALGERIA (anagram indicated by “upset”)
17a	EP*ICENE	EP (“record”) + *NIECE (anagram indicated by “shattered”)
18a	OR LAND O	OR (“gold”) + LAND (“to secure”) + morocc^O^ (last letter indicated by “at last”)
20a	MUS(<KRA<)T	MUST (“need”) containing (“to assume”) <ARK< (“Noah’s craft,” reversal indicated by “returned”)
22a	<DAM A<SCENE	<A MAD< (“a crazy,” reversal indicated by “retrospective”) + SCENE (“stage”)
23a	B LING	^B^ahrain (first letter indicated by “first portion”) + LING (“cod”)
25a	*ROOFING S	*GO IN FOR (anagram indicated by “shockingly”) + S (“second”)
27a	_RARELY_	qata_R ARE Lyricists (hidden word indicated by “found”)
28a	*DANSEUSE	*SUDANESE (anagram indicated by “flexible”)
29a	<_MYRTLE_<	<isra_EL TRY M_auritania< (reversal indicated by “backing up,” hidden word indicated by “in”)

Down

1d	*US AID	*SAUDI (anagram indicated by “it helps make”) In their humility, Hot and Trazom didn’t give this an exclamation point..
2d	¶RIGGING	¶RING (letter bank indicated by “from … elements”)
3d	*ENEMY	*YEMEN (anagram indicated by “breaking up”)
5d	O I L	^O^peration ^I^raqi ^L^iberty (first letters indicated by “origins”) Another &lit marked with a question mark instead of an exclamation point.
6d	*PENALTIES	*PALESTINE (anagram indicated by “suffering”)
7d	*TRESTLE	*SETTLER (anagram indicated by “violent”)
8d	E(<ESUR<)GENT	R (“Republican”) + GENT (“main”) containing (“concealing”) <RUSE< (“deception,” reversal indicated by “on the rise”)
11d	<GIR<A SOLE	<RIG< (†, reversal indicated by “up”) + A (†) + SOLE (“single”)
14d	*STEAMIER	*EMIRATES (anagram indicated by “unstable”)
15d	REORDERED	Inverted clue: “Yasir” is an anagram (REORDERED) of “Syria”
16d	LANDS LID E	LANDS (“Kuwait and Somalia, for instance”) + LID (“top”) ^E^urope (first letter indicated by “at first”) Example clues are a very good way to work theme words into the puzzle.
19d	*LAMPOON	*OMAN PLO (anagram indicated by “skewered”)
21d	*RAIMEN T	*AIRMEN (anagram indicated by “flying”) + ^T^unisia (first letter indicated by “capital”)
23d	*BIALY	*LIBYA (anagram indicated by “all over”)
24d	*G TYPE	*EGYPT (anagram indicated by “in turmoil”)
26d	<GAS<	<SAG< (“flag,” reversal indicated by “hoisting”)