Possible Clues:

• Home comfort offered by a marine professor's position
• Put out by charm offensive of an amateur critic?
• Sitting room furniture
• Padding taken advantage of by such relaxed solvers?
• Comfortable place to prepare tea I pour finally
• Provide professor with somewhere comfortable to sit
• Amateur member, person presiding
• Give power to board member without direct involvement?
• Amateur is seldom ultimately drawn in by mischievous look
• Adjective for someone whose knowledge about a field is from reading or observation rather than experience