QC 2699 by Oink

This is a very common crossword word. Learn it.

My initial parsing was B + ROGUES, but that implies plural, so it would have to be scoundrels’, with the apostrophe so indicating. I will appeal to the Apostrophe Protection Society.

Only cryptic element is the possible misdirection of “appeal”.

This phrase appears in England in about 1910, (OED first sighting is 1917). Etymology is not known, probably from either a bean as something simple an worthless (“not worth beans”) or from bean for the head (“beaning” someone is still baseball slang)

Oink loses points for artistic merit, that trailing N pains me.

The name Indonesia derives from the Greek words Indos (Ἰνδός) and nesos (νῆσος), meaning “Indian islands”, so the clue and definition follow the etymology. Although it’s an odd name: they are nowhere near India and have never been part of India, there doesn’t seem to be any campaign to change the name. Maybe they just like sitting next to India at the UN.

Is a Manager the same as an Organiser? I’m sure there are entire management books on this.

OED has ORGANIZER as the headword, which surprised me.

“iced”  not usually how one asks for a whisky. “On the rocks” is for whisky, “iced” is for tea. “Iced Whisky” sounds as odd as “Tea on the rocks”

Am evildoer should be told to “drop sin”. Very nice, I’m, a fan of clues which can be solved by a simple change in the word break.

An Alibi is one way of providing a DEFENCE in a criminal trial.

Kippers are sleepers, hence Land of Nod, which is itself an ancient joke (going back to at least to Swift) punning on the biblical place name (in Genesis 4:16) where Cain is expelled to. There is nothing soporific about this location in the text, but it sounds like the involuntary nodding that a sleeper makes when they drop off.

So. Kippers sounds like kip, which is slang for sleeping. Sleepers involuntary Nod. And this place in the Bible contains the word Nod.

For example, Not a shred of evidence/Not an IOTA of evidence.

OED says “East Anglia only”. Rarely used in the singular, though. Apparently the US airmen stationed in East Anglia were at first excited to be stationed close to the famous Norfolk Broads.

With the U sitting in 2nd position, I was sure that this was TUBA, for Tuber, which is found in a sack.

Innocent III was the most (in)famous, he directed the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars and organized the Fourth Crusade of 1202–1204, which ended in the sack of Constantinople.

Other top Pope names : Urban, Hilarius.

Class-warfare alert, I thought that was banned in election season. The OED guessed the etymology to be an alteration of “tuft” the special tassel on the gown which could be worn by “a nobleman or gentleman-commoner at Oxford.”

And right at the end, the Signature clue.