Battlefield promotion (Solution No. 3,349)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,349 is below the fold.

Besides hockey, I also referee fencing (because I didn’t have enough slashing and spearing in my life).  Last weekend I worked a Regional Youth Circuit tournament up in Jersey City. It’s a charity event, and since the organizer was a friend of mine, I was happy to volunteer my time.

The organizer also is a member of the Fencing Officials’ Commission, and she uses this tournament as a chance to give new referees a chance to work a higher-level competition.  She and a couple other FOC members observe and evaluate them for a possible increase in their ratings.  When I checked in, she asked if I wanted to be observed.  I answered no, because I wanted to have at least one more large event under my belt first.

My day started with the girls’ 12-and-under épée event.  Things went pretty smoothly in my group for the preliminary round, but then in the eliminations we had both of the wire reels that connect the fencers to the scoring machine fail during the same bout.  I handled the situation well: first giving then rescinding yellow cards because the symptoms of the reel failure are the same as those when the fencer’s equipment fails.  Then there was another bout where I had to call non-combativity twice.    After the finals of that event were over, I worked the 14-and-under girls. 

I’d seen the organizer walking around the floor, checking on everyone, and she was watching while I dealt with the reel problems.  While I was getting some lunch between rounds, the organizer came over.  She asked: “In your heart of hearts, which weapon do you want to referee?”  Great question!  I replied that I like saber, but I’m better at épée.  So she told me she was increasing my épée rating. 

Then she asked me to go take over the boys’ 14-and-under, which was the top event at the tournament.  Despite getting a rules interpretation wrong at one point (when a coach called me on it, I did the right thing by getting a ruling from Bout Committee before we went on), I got to work all the way to the semifinals and run a bout on the center strip.  I was elated, since one of my goals for the season was to increase my rating and work a big event, and I accomplished it before the season was half-over. 

My favorite clue in this puzzle was 2d, which reversed not one but two word --> letter clues commonly seen in cryptics.  “Fix” became “F” (loud) plus “IX” (nine)

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/193625/puzzle-no-3349

Degree of difficulty:  Moderate.  Needed a little thinking near the bottom, but I’m of the right age to recognize Devo! 

Themework: 1a, 11a, and 24a refer to the Marx Brothers (as alluded to in 28a): GROUCHo, CHICo, and HARPo.  Those were the three seen most often—Gummo and Zeppo also appeared in a few films and shows, mostly playing straight roles as foils to their older brothers. 

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	OS CART HE(G)R OUCH	OS (“operator’s”) + CART (“buggy”) + HER (“that woman”) containing (“carrying”) do^G^ (last letter indicated by “tail”) + OUCH (“that hurts”)
9a	<TOOLBAR_<	<_g_RAB LOOT< (“snatch money,” reversal indicated by “back,” omission of G indicated by “excluding $1,000”)
10a	REF RESH	REF (“official”) + RESH (“letter from Israel”)
11a	*RADICAL ~CHIC	*CAD [and] LIAR (anagram indicated by “terrible”) + ~SHEIK (“Arab leader,” homophone indicated by “discussed”)
12a, 22a	HAS TEN	HAS (“holds”) + TEN (“a sawbuck”) Ten-dollar bills are nicknamed sawbucks (at least in hard-boiled detective novels) because the roman numeral X looks like a sawbuck (sawhorse).
13a	C(LIEN)T	LIEN (“financial claim”) contained in (“in”) CT (“court”)
14a	*NITROGEN	*RINGTONE (anagram indicated by “jarring”)
17a	<ONE (U)PPED<	<DEPP (“Johnny”) + ENO (“Brian”)< (reversal indicated by “returning”) containing (“about”) jan^U^ary (middle letter indicated by “mid-”)
19a	T HEIST	HEIST (“robbery”) following (†) T (“true”)
22a	see 12a
24a	*AEOLIAN HARP	*PARIAH ALONE (anagram indicated by “deranged”)
26a	~AIRFARE	~HEIR (“beneficiary”) + ~FAIR (“just”), homophone indicated by “articulated”
27a	*EXOTICS	*COEXIST (anagram indicated by “uneasily”)
28a	<MAR(XIS)T< TH OUGHT	<TRAM (“streetcar”) containing (“around”) SIX (†)< (reversal indicated by “westbound”) + TH (“Thursday”) + OUGHT (†)

Down

1d	_OTTER_	p_OTTER_y (“china,” omission of first and last letters indicated by “removing limits”)
2d	C LOUD NINE	C (“one hundred”) + LOUD (“f”) + NINE (“ix”) Turning the usual construction around.  Good clue.
3d	RUB ICON	RUB (“polish”) + ICON (“a religious image”)
4d	H(*ERAL)D	*LEAR (anagram indicated by “new production”) contained in (“in”) HD (“high definition”)
5d	*GERSHWIN	*HER SWING (anagram indicated by “improved”)
6d	*OFFICER	*FORCE IF (anagram indicated by “regimented”)
7d	~CZECH	~CZECH (“for example, Kafka,” homophone indicated by “for auditors”)
8d	CHE*STNUT	CHE (“famous Argentine”) + *STUNT (anagram indicated by “remix”)
13d	*CROATIAN	*RAINCOAT (anagram indicated by “is ragged”)
15d	GRIM ACING	GRIM (“somber”) followed by (“over”) ACING (“getting 100%”)
16d	DEVO TEES	DEVO (“rock band”) + TEES (“shirts”)
18d	P(HAL)AN X	PAN (“Peter”) containing (“surrounds”) HAL (†) + X (“unknown”)
20d	*HAN SOLO	*NO HALOS (anagram indicated by “disturbed”)
21d	*SILENT	*LISTEN (anagram indicated by “inappropriately”)
23d	_NORMA_	ho_NOR MA_rylin (anagram indicated by “displaying”)
25d	POS(I)T	POST (“assignment”) containing (“involves”) I (“one”)