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Hi birder
22d is one of those tea-tray moments (though "cakes" is strange)

Thanks all makes sense now

Many contended, but my COD is 15. Runners-up 21, 24 and 11. Although 11 was one of the first solutions I got; may have been FOI but I forgot to note one.

Really struggled and to be honest got quite fed up.. Still some not parsed. 9 across 1 across. 13 what is it. Did not enjoy at all.

9 across seems like a subtractive anagram. The final 4 letters were obvious but the first 3 took ages to figure out.

1 across is parsed upthread.

13 was my next to LOI and a NHO.

I agree with snowwhite and others - this wasn't enjoyable.

I started out hating the puzzle, abandoned it after wasting a big block of time and filling little of the grid.

But after rocky started the thread I resumed, began to make steady progress, and it became painfully enjoyable, somewhat like running a marathon in hot weather. 😬

Agree with negative comments. Some clues have no obvious wordplay, which is supposed to be the point of cryptic crosswords.
I would still like further hints on 9 ac please. Nothing said so far explains how it parses.

Another subtractive anagram. Last three words suggest the meaning.

Possibly anagram of "airdefence" without the "and". Seems very clumsy to me but Enigmatist knows what he is doing