My lips are sealed (Solution No. 3,346)

The solution and annotation to The Nation puzzle No. 3,346 is below the fold.

I did a little less refereeing than I expected to do at the fencing tournament Sunday, but for a good reason: I managed to make it to the round of 16 and ended up in 14th place.  After being eliminated, I worked a quarterfinal between a highly-ranked junior (who eventually won the tournament) and one of my Friday night practice partners (who needless to say is a much better fencer than me).

My friend was having a really good day, having beaten the junior in the preliminary round, and he got off to a good start in this bout.  He carried a 10-6 lead into the second period, but his opponent adjusted his distance to make better use of his reach advantage, and my friend’s attacks started falling short, making for easy ripostes.  I could see the bout slipping away but of course I couldn’t say anything (much as I wanted to), and the junior eventually won 15-13.  The one minute break between the second and third periods, with the score 14-13, felt interminable.

Later, he told me he knew he should have fenced more defensively once he had that second period lead, but he kept doing what he’d done up to that point because it was working.  I said I had the same situation in my last preliminary, where I clawed my way to a 4-4 tie with a very good college kid from Colombia, but blew the last point infighting instead of escaping to the back of the strip so I could start over.  Of this lessons are made: thinking and reacting at the same time is very difficult.

Solution to The Nation cryptic crossword No. 3,346 

Link to puzzle: http://www.thenation.com/article/191345/puzzle-no-3346

Degree of difficulty (by standards of this weekly puzzle):  somewhat hard

Themework: As hinted in 26d, nine answers were the names of automobile models.

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

9a	_MOOCH	_s_MOOCH (“kiss,” omission of first letter indicated by “faceless”)
10a	<O_V ERE XERT	<T REX (“dinosaur”) + ERE (“before”) + ^V^olcn^O^ (first and last letters indicated by “edges”),< reversal of the whole thing indicated by “flipping”
11a	*AMHERST	*MATHERS (anagram indicated by “marshall”)
12a	<_OPTS FOR_<	<memoi_R OF ST PO_lycarp< (hidden phrase indicated by “run through”, reversal indicated by “back”)
13a	*AFRIKAANS	*ASIA FRANK (anagram indicated by “translated”)
15a	CIV I C	CIV (“104”) + ^I^ndependent ^C^ontractors (first letters indicated by “at the forefront”)
17a	STARE AT	STAR (“celebrity”) + EAT (“to gobble”)
18a	DOS AGES	DOS (“in Guadalajara, two”) + AGES (“times”)
20a	AR(I)ES	ARES (“war god”) containing (“takes”) I (“one”)
22a	<CE(REBEL)LA<	<ALEC< (“Baldwin,” reversal indicated by “turned”) containing (“to suppress”) REBEL (“insubordinate”) If this had been smoother, it would have been more difficult
24a	PI(G)TA IL	PITA (“bread”) containing (“around”) galesbur^G^ (last letter indicated by “the east side”) + IL (“Illinois”)
26a	CH(R ON)IC	CHIC (“fashion”) containing (“entertaining”) R (“right”) + ON (†)
27a	*OIL FILTER	*FIRE IT LOL (anagram indicated by “malfunctioning”)
28a	_ABLER	_g_ABLER (“Hedda,” omission of first letter indicated by “coming in late”)

Down

1d	IMP ALA	IMP (“small creature”) + A LA (“not unlike”)
2d	M OTHER MAY I	^M^uch (first indicated by “originally”) + OTHER (“different”) + MAY I (“international workers’ day”)
3d	*CHEROKEE	*COKE HERE (anagram indicated by “stirred”)
4d	V(<OL<)T	<LO< (“look,” reversal indicated by “northward”) contained in (“in”) VT (“Vermont”)
5d	R(*ECONS)IDER	*SCONE (anagram indicated by “chewed”) contained in (“swallowed by”) RIDER (“passenger”)
6d	SEPT_IC_	SEPT (“in Montreal, seven”) + _l_IC_e_ (omission of first and last letters indicated by “unprotected”)
7d	LEA}F}	}F}LEA (“insect,” relocation of first letter indicated by “putting its head underneath”)
8d	¶ATTRACTS	¶CARTS (letter bank indicated by “bit by bit with some repetition”)
14d	ART ICU LATE	ART (“drama perhaps”) + ICU (“some of the hospital”) + LATE (“dead”)
16d	VI*GILANTLY	^VI^sigoths (first two letters indicated by “pair of”) + *TALLYING (anagram indicated by “nuts”)
17d	SHAM PO OS	SHAM (“fake”) + PO (“post office”) + OS (“rings”)
19d	*SUBURBAN	*BURN A BUS (anagram indicated by “after an accident”)
21d	STA(L)IN	STAIN (“stigma”) containing (“surrounds”) L (“liberal”)
23d	AC CORD	AC (“alternating current”) + CORD (“wire”)
25d	<GOLF<	<FLOG< (“whip,” reversal indicated by “up”)
26d	*CARS	*ARCS (anagram indicated by “scattered”)