There were no difficult or unusual words to hold me up, and other than PERI and HA-HA, nothing too obtuse on the GK front either, except maybe the composer, who was a write-in for me after my blog a couple or three weeks ago.
Difficult to pick a CoD, but my word of the day, I think, is FRETWORK.
Across
7 There’s little right in devil becoming a chum (6)
FRIEND – The devil in this case is a FIEND containing R{ight}
8 A bishop ecstatic, distracted (6)
ABSENT – A B{ishop} and SENT (ecstatic)
9 Celebrity sending nasty people back (4)
STAR – The nasty people being sent back (reversed) are RATS
10 Been playing with aunt yet to lose (8)
UNBEATEN – Anagram (playing) of [BEEN] and [AUNT]
11 Pessimist, endlessly severe after reflective mood (8)
DOOMSTER – DOOM is reflected mood (reversed), and (endlessly severe) STER{n}
13 Many items at the auction(4)
LOTS – Double definition
15 Son and relations hide (4)
SKIN – S{on} and KIN (relations). Hide here is the hide of an animal, rather than its verbal sense
16 Fairy at front of hut wasted away (8)
PERISHED – A PERI (in Crosswordland as in my Chambers dictionary) is a beautiful fairy, and this is placed in front of SHED (hut)
18 Treat she arranged in places of entertainment (8)
THEATRES – Anagram (arranged) of [TREAT SHE]
20 Male to consume something from the butcher (4)
MEAT – M{ale} and EAT (to consume)
21 Church has a building for renting, a holiday home? (6)
CHALET – CH{urch} with A LET (building for renting). A CHALET is one type of holiday home, although other types are available – hence the question mark
22 Performer among celebrities in Germany (6)
SINGER – Hidden in (among) {celebritie}S IN GER{many}
Down
1 Worry when given job to produce ornamental design (8)
FRETWORK – To worry is to FRET and job is WORK
2 Tried somehow to get chaps to agree in a harmful way (13)
DETRIMENTALLY – Anagram of [TRIED] (somehow), followed by MEN (chaps) and TALLY (agree)
3 Short notice, fair and correct (6)
ADJUST – AD (short notice) and JUST (fair)
4 Composer who gives others a ‘distressing’ experience? (6)
BARBER – Cryptic clue with a pun on distressing (a BARBER removes tresses, so can be said to be a dis-tresser). A similar clue appeared a few weeks ago on my blog, clued ‘American composer responsible for hair’. The answer refers to Samuel Osborne Barber II, the American composer referred to, although at the time I noted that it could also refer to Stephen Barber who has worked with Keith Richards, the LSO, etc.
5 This bent male’s running the organisation (13)
ESTABLISHMENT – Anagram (running) of [THIS BENT MALE’S]
6 Individual catching cold in the past (4)
ONCE – Individual is ONE, catching C{old}
12 Woman in garden the day before Christmas? (3)
EVE – According to at least one myth system, EVE was the woman in the garden (of Eden) and is the name of ‘the day before’ certain events, such as Christmas or New Year
14 Youngster eats greens surprisingly – but no seconds whatever! (8)
TEENAGER – Anagram (surprisingly) of [EAT{s} GREEN{s}] with the S{econds} removed (but no seconds)
16 Talk about one criminal at sea (6)
PIRATE – PRATE is to talk, about I (one)
17 Withstand naughty sister (6)
RESIST – Anagram (naughty) of [SISTER]
19 Landscape feature of two hectares (2-2)
HA-HA – HA is an abbreviation for Hectare, and put two of them together to get a HA-HA. A HA-HA is a ditch or vertical drop between a garden and surrounding landscape which forms a barrier without spoiling the view.
Edited at 2017-09-07 05:34 am (UTC)
An enjoyable puzzle with my COD being 14d
Lovely puzzle which I thoroughly enjoyed. Thanks Izetti. But DNK BARBER, so thanks Rotter for the explanation. I’m not very good at composers, a weakness in my general knowledge. “Peri”, however, came immediately to me thanks to G&S (Iolanthe, or The Peer and the Peri).
Templar
Please could you add a name to your own comments so that we know to whom we speak, or alternatively, sign up or sign in to a livejournal account. Thanks.
However sometimes I’m among the first to comment and I’m notorious for editing up to half-a-dozen times so I think I’d have noticed if the comments total was higher than the number of postings visible in the early hours.
It’s certainly true that bloggers are notified by email of every comment and edit if they have settings set to receive them, as do contributors with LJ accounts when another person replies directly to their comment.
Suspicious messages also get added to the total until they are deleted.
I just edited this to see what effect it has…
And again – hmmm – inconclusive, no of comments remains at 12 on the main page. maybe you are right Jack, and I am wrong.
Edited at 2017-09-07 10:45 am (UTC)
Editing does not raise the comment number, I just tested it by adding this line.
Edited at 2017-09-07 11:21 am (UTC)
This was nice lunchtime fun, with “peri” the only unknown. Can’t remember at which stately home I first saw a HA-HA, but it was probably one of Capability Brown’s. FOI 7a, LOI the unknown composer, though I probably spent more time working the DOOMSTER out.
Edited at 2017-09-07 12:59 pm (UTC)
FOI 7a and LOI 3d.
Carl
The long 5d seemed obvious and opened things up. LOI was 9a as I was darting around the grid. Liked 1d. David
17:28. Samuel Barber, Adagio, wonderful piece, a bit overused in films. Also only ever heard PERI from Iolanthe.
Ecstatic = sent?