Not getting away with it (Solution No. 3,352)

The solution and annotation to The Nation crossword No. 3,352 is below the fold.

Saturday I worked a game for 10-year-olds, and the quality of play wasn’t very good.  More than a few instances of players lining up on the wrong side (usually they get that figured out by December).

One of the visiting team players (they actually were at home but since this was a make-up game, they were nominally the visitors) took three penalties, which is a lot at this level, and might have been whistled for one or two more had we been especially strict.  They weren’t very good penalties: a couple for holding and a tripping.  Between periods, my partner reminded me that we needed to keep an eye on this player and his violations.  I said they were pretty blatant, to which my partner replied: “he hasn’t learned to get away with it yet.”
 
In the dressing room, I recalled how late in my career I was moved from playing wing to defenseman, and how I soon learned that you could get away with an awful lot of holding if you did it right.  It was all in the placement of your arms and stick, and keeping your legs moving so as to make it look like you’re skating along and maintaining your position when you’re actually restraining the opponent.

With the new (post-lockout) standard of play in the NHL, refs are watching out for even the artful kind of holding and interference, and those actions are now getting called.  Now you have to watch football to see skillful holding, but the principle is the same: illegally controlling an opponent’s movement while making it look legal.

Solution to puzzle no. 3,352

Themework: 12a and 15a are lines from the well-known poem “Paul Revere’s Ride” (26a).  1a, though it wasn’t clued as such (that would make it all too obvious), is the author.  19a is the constructors’ fanciful addition.  

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	*HENRY LONGFELLOW	*GROW FENNEL HOLLY (anagram indicated by “in a special arrangement”)
9a	T H(IN) AIR	bol^T^ (last letter indicated by “ultimately”) + HAIR (“locks”) containing (“outside”) IN (“home”)
10a	S(US P)ECT	US (“American”) + ^P^olice (first letter indicated by “chief”) contained in (“is infiltrating”) SECT (“splinter group”)
11a	HUE	Double definition
12a	ONE IF BY LAND	Theme answer
15a	TWO IF BY SEA	Theme answer
17a	FLU E	FLU (“bug”) + E (“empty”)
19a	THREE IF BY AIR	Theme answer
24a	S(C)ANDAL	^C^ivic (first letter indicated by “leader”) contained in (“wearing”) SANDAL (“shoe”)
25a	~SQUEEZE	~smolen_SK WE ZE_alots (homophone indicated by “heard,” hidden phrase indicated by “in the middle of”) First time I’ve ever seen a clue like that, I think.
26a	*PAUL REVERE’S RIDE	*IDLE VERSE A PURER (anagram indicated by “version”)

Down

1d	ANT(I)HER O	I (“ero”) contained in (“invested in”) ANTHER (“part of a flower”) + O (“ring”)
2d	*DYNAMO	*MONDAY (anagram indicated by “ruined”)
3d	SO(BRIE)T Y	SOT (“drunkard”) containing (“eats”) BRIE (“sheese”) + Y (“health club”)
4d	_AGES_	gar_AGE S_ale (hidden word indicated by “is taking”)
5d	<_JERSEY_<	<bucke_YES REJ_ected_< (reversal indicated by “returning,” hidden word indicated by “group of”))
6d	C L U E	CuLtUrEd (alternate letters indicated by “oddly”)
7d	HOTSHOTS	HOTS + HOTS (“lust,” repetition indicafted by “a double dose”)
8d	WITH DREW	WITH (“accompanied by”) + DREW (“teenage detective” [Nancy])
13d	<F(*REEB AS)ERS<	<SERF< (“peasant,” reversal indicated by “rises”) containing (“to swallow”) *BEER AS (anagram indicated by “clumsily”)
14d	ALL*ERGENIC	ALL (“every”) + *GENERIC (anagram indicated by “mixture”)
16d	<FI<ELDERS	<IF< (reversal indicated by “upset”) + ELDERS (“religious leaders”)
18d	*VALUES	*US VEAL (anagram indicated by “in a stew”)
20d	HI AT US	HI (“greeting”) + AT (“facing”) + US (“you and me”)
21d	*I(N) LOVE	*OLIVE (anagram indicated by “madly”) containing (“eating”) spi^N^ach (middle letter indicated by “heart of”) Reference to Olive Oyl of the Popeye cartoon series
22d	R_S VP	^R^eckles^S^ (first and last letters indicated by “extremely”) + VP (“Joe Biden”)
23d	_HERE_	quic_HE RE_cipe (hidden word indicated by “an ingredient”)