Today, we shall look at “Charades”, a very common category of clues in Cryptics. The clue, as with all cryptic clues, will contain a definition/meaning part and a puzzle part. The puzzle part in this clue will consist of a series of wordplays. When you string the parts together, you will get your answer.

Let us see how this works with a few examples:

A very old firm screens commercial for fruit (7)
The answer is a fruit (of 7 letters) and it has the following parts: A + V(ery) + O(old) + CO (for company / firm) + AD (advertisement/commercial). The word ‘screens’ tells us that AD is inside CO. So the answer is A-V-O-C-AD-O.
A street journey on horseback perhaps (7)
The answer’s meaning is ‘on horseback perhaps’ and it is a charade of the parts: A + ST(reet) + RIDE (journey) which gives us ASTRIDE.
The best police go down quickly (7)
The answer’s meaning is ‘go down quickly’ and it is a charade of PLUM (the best) + MET (short for the Metropolitan Police in London) which gives us PLUMMET. You should know that many of the best cryptic crosswords are from the UK – this means that some of the abbreviations, acronyms, jargon and slang will have an English slant. MET is an example of what I mean.
Chap after endless chat is showing charm (8)
The answer means ‘charm’ and is a charade of TAL (a word that means chat, i.e. talk, but is missing its last letter) + IS + MAN (chap) which gives us TALISMAN.

Here are a few for you to try on your own:
1) Obvious disagreement for one in court (9)
2) Benefit from place with our team (4)
3) Curse love at end of speech (4)
4) Everyone was in debt – that’s permitted (7)
5) Reportedly purchase permit to get around city (6)

The last one is a tough one – it is a combination of the “audio” type as well as the “charade”. Good luck!