The Age/SMH Cryptic by DH #20,735

This was a tough one. I made it even harder for myself by putting the wrong word in for 1A and the NW corner was stuck for ages. I put in MARSHALLS (I know it shouldn't have a double L) instead of MARTINETS and with three cross letters correct it took me a while to get up the nerve to erase. After all that I have only one unsolved - 6D. I don't know what's going on there. I tried using One Across and didn't get anything that worked for me. However it was quite a big puzzle and a lot of challenges so I'm not too fussed about missing the four-letter word. I'd like to put BARN in there but I can't make it work with the clue. Also twice DH used "point" to make TINE which threw me as I was trying to make compass points fit.

I had a quick squiz at yesterday's Rufus too and got a few filled in before I had to head out with kids' on playdates. I really enjoy Rufus and maybe it's because he's the easy Monday guy but I genuinely like his wit. I know from the comments sections that he's not everyone's favourite but I get the feeling those are the kinds of people who find something to complain about in everything. I'm learning who the serial whingers are. Life is too short to be perpetually disappointed.

I also had a brief conversation on the weekend with another friend and I learned about the two camps of compilers the Ximenians and the Libertarians. Late to the lingo and battle that rages between them, while googling the subject I happened on an article from 2011 by David Astle on his blog that enlightened me. After that I went to the Guardian and printed out a few Araucaria puzzles and I enjoyed them very much. I think my experience with DA made them easier than I'd have expected. Have I been cryptically trained by Libertarians? I'll have to dig up some puzzles in Ximenes style and see for myself. To be fair I doubt I'd notice much difference but it would be nice to see if I could - which is Rufus, I can't tell? Are there more tribes and styles? It's exciting to find there's a style war going on and all the players seem to be very nice people.

Back to today, here's my pic and it's full of scribbles as this was a 32 clue puzzle full of charades:

There we are. Any explanations for 6D would be appreciated. Please suggest compilers who make clues to satisfy Ximenes style. Let me know who your favourite compilers are, I'd like to look them up, too.