Fumble!!! (Solution No. 3,315)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,315 is below the fold.  

I told my partner about five minutes into yesterday’s game that I couldn’t tell whether it was a good game or a bad one.  Turned out I was right on the money.  Now that it’s getting late in the season, the players have gotten better.  But they’re still pee-wees.  Every time something happened to get me thinking they were playing well, something else happened to make me think it was a bad game.  The kids are skating better than they did in November.  They’d set up in the zone and start looking like a hockey team, but then there’d be a turnover and an odd-man rush the other way.

I wasn’t immune either.  I skated well, made some good calls, and was on top of stuff like the directive from the league that teams have a coach or other official in the penalty box when one of their players is there.  But I had a few flubs too. 

My right hand is my whistle hand because of my bad shoulder (can’t raise that arm above my head for signals), but I also need to use that hand to hand off the puck to my partner when he’s facing off, or to receive it when I’m facing off.  But having a puck slapped into your hand and onto the fingerclamp of your whistle hurts, so I take off my whistle and put it in my pocket before the pass, them put it back on for the draw.

In the second period, I had to switch whistles because the one I started with froze up.  I switched to my Acme, which I hadn’t used in a few months.  The fingerclamp of that one is a little tight, and when there was an offside and I retrieved the puck for my partner, the whistle popped out of my hand and skittered along the ice towards the bench.  So everyone else had a good laugh at my expense.

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

1a, 8d, 29d, 26d	ALL Y OU (CAN E A) T	ALLY (“partner”) + OUT (“in the open”) containing (“about”) CANE (“staff”) + A (†) Nice way to use an otherwise throwaway bunch of 3s in the grid. Bonus kudos for having the words of the phrase read around clockwise.
3a	_LIGNON B(ERR)Y	_k_LIGNON (“alien warrior,” omission of first letter indicated by “loses head”) + BY (†) containing (“swallowing”) ERR (“stray”) That was good timing, I had a waffle with lignonberry jam for breakfast a couple of Sundays ago
9a	O *NSLAUGHT	O (“love”) + *HALTS GUN (anagram indicated by “unleashed”)
10a	*SNAFU	*FAUNS (anagram indicated by “REARRANGING”—cross reference to 7d)
11a	S(CREW)S	CREW (“all hands”) contained in (“aboard”) SS (“steamship”)
12a	METE OR(I)C	METE (“deal”) + ORC (“goblinlike creature”) containing (“controlling”) I (“island”)
14a	<A U STRA LIA<	AIL (“bother”) + ARTS (†) + U (“university”) + ^A^ctivist (first letter indicated by “originally”) This was hard to parse out though the definition and intersecting letters made it obvious.
17a	_INFO_	re_INFO_rced t_INFO_il (hidden word indicated by “twice in”) Never seen one like that before where the hidden word appears twice.  Doesn’t make it harder or easier: just more clever.
19a	~HYMN	~HIM (“that man,” homophone indicated by “is said to be”)
20a	~GOLDENEYE	~GOAL DENY (“objective refuse,” homophone indicated by “to be heard in”) Peculiar way to frame the defintion, but within the rules.
22a	RE(PUB)LIC	PUB (“inn”) contained by (“possessed by”) RELIC (“ancient artifact”)
23a	DA *HLIA	DA (“lawyer”) followed by (“facing”) *HAIL (anagram indicated by “storm”)
26a	_ELOPE_	hand_EL OPE_ra (hidden word indicated by “from”)
27a	*POTPOURRI	*RIP UP ROOT (anagram indicated by “savagely”)
28a	T(WENT YE)IGHT	WENT (“proceeded”) + YE (“you, once”) contained in (“invested in”) TIGHT (“firm”) “Here” is the definition, cleverly referring to the entry number.
29a	CAN	See 1a

Down

1d	A TOM S MASHER	A (†) TOM (“turkey”) + ^S^liced (first letter indicated by “initially”) + MASHER (“kitchen utensil”) I don’t think people would have liked it if Hot and Trazom had clued TOM as “cat”).
2d	<LA(S)ER<	S (“sulfur”) contained in (“involved in”) <REAL< (“actual,” reversal indicated by “return of”)
3d	<LOA NWORD<	<DROWN (“inundate”) + AOL (“internet service provider”), reversal of whole thing indicated by “rising”) Never heard of that term before.
4d	NAGS	Double definition
5d	ON THE BALL	Pun
6d	B(ASK)ET	BET (“gamble”) containing (“abpout”) ASK (“request”) “Court” in this context means basketball court
7d	¶REARRANGE	¶ANGER (letter bank indicated by “explosion”) Letter banks are good for an extra challenge because they can share indicators with anagrams.  However
8d	YOU	See 1a
13d	COOPERATION	Pun
15d	S(E MAP)HORE	communicat^E^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) + MAP (“visual representation”) contained in (“received by”) SHORE (†) Exclamation point since “visual representation, perhaps received by shore” is both definition and wordplay.
16d	*LAGNIAPPE	*APPEALING (anagram indicated by “unexpected”) This is a hard word to spell right (unless you’re from New Orleans), so you need the crossing letters to be sure of it.
18d	M(*EGA)VOLT	*GAVE (anagram indicated by “shudders”) contained in (“in”) MOLT (“shed”)
21d	AB SENT	AB (“degree”) + SENT (“delivered”)
24d	*LYRIC	*CYRIL (anagram indicated by “is affected”)
25d	_STAG_	prote_ST AG_ainst (hidden word indicated by “connection”)
26d	EAT	See 1a