Laid hands on the ball, oddly beating seeds (7)
I believe the answer is:
blessed
'laid hands on' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with ownership as well as being past participle verbs.
Maybe they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'ball oddly beating seeds' is the wordplay.
'oddly' means one should take alternating letters (letters in the odd-numbered positions are used).
'beating' indicates an anagram.
The alternating letters of 'ball' are 'bl'.
'seeds' is an anagram of 'essed'.
'bl'+'essed'='BLESSED'
'the' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for blessed that I've seen before include "darned" , "worthy of respect" , "Made lucky - made holy" , "Highly favoured or fortunate" , "Endowed" .)