A pleasant start to a Sunday morning with nothing too troublesome or obscure.
There seemed to be a lot of people in the clues/entries but I cannot see any connection between them so presumably this is just a random occurrence.
Across
1 Purse initially lost? That makes me sore! (4)
OUCH – [p]OUCH (purse initially lost)
3 Ace so often abused openly (2,4,4)
TO ONES FACE – an anagram (abused) of ACE SO OFTEN
10 Group backed family protecting English author (7)
TOLKIEN – LOT (group) reversed (backed) plus KIN (family) around (protecting) E (English) – J. R. R. Tolkien
11 US actor taken by Republican in large yacht (7)
CRUISER – CRUISE (US actor {Tom Cruise}) R (Republican)
12 Fellow dallied not half in affair (5)
FLING – F (Fellow) LING[ered] (dallied not half)
13 Figure acquiring hotel arranged long fund-raising broadcast (8)
TELETHON – TEN (figure) around (acquiring) an anagram (arranged) of HOTEL
16 Clear young troublemaker concealed by hat (6)
LIMPID – IMP (young troublemaker) in (concealed by) LID (hat)
17 Greek character namely on date drunk wine (8)
MUSCADET – MU (Greek character) SC (namely) plus an anagram (drunk) of DATE
19 Singing performances are exposed to view in musical (8)
CABARETS – BARE (exposed to view) in CATS (musical)
21 Eagerly purchase photograph at college (4,2)
SNAP UP – SNAP (photograph) UP (at college)
24 Upset a good one-time Conservative politician (8)
AGGRIEVE – A G (good) GRIEVE (one-time Conservative politician {Dominic Grieve})
25 Trophy shown by old man as relief in break? (5)
CUPPA – CUP (trophy) PA (old man)
27 Sign one’s left wine and cigarette having imbibed litre (3,4)
RED FLAG – RED (wine) plus FAG (cigarette) around (having imbibed) L (litre) – the banner of socialism or of revolution (Chambers)
29 A Frenchman enthralled by Canadian singer beginning to dislike US crooner (7)
DIAMOND – A M (a Frenchman) in (enthralled by) DION (Canadian singer {Celine Dion}) D[islike] (beginning to dislike) – Neil Diamond
30 Deteriorate, / as a skier might? (2,8)
GO DOWNHILL – double def.
31 Display pottery for speaker (4)
WEAR – sounds like (for speaker) ‘ware’ (pottery)
Down
1 Couplet oaf composed is inappropriate (3,2,5)
OUT OF PLACE – an anagram (composed) of COUPLET OAF
2 Element found in middle of arcade? (7)
CALCIUM – the middle of ‘arcade’ is Ca, the chemical symbol for the grid entry
4 Decorated Antarctic explorer snubbed after inspiring navy (6)
ORNATE – OATE[s] (Antarctic explorer snubbed) around (after inspiring) RN (navy) – Lawrence “Titus” Oates
5 Lift untested driver, first item in Augusta taken by American golfer (8)
NICKLAUS – NICK (lift) L (untested driver) A[ugusta)] (first item in Augusta) US (American) – Jack Nicklaus
6 Take action in hearing for a bit (3)
SOU – sounds like (in hearing) ‘sue’ (take action) – an old French coin
7 Special constable wearing a tie gets to escape legal process (7)
ABSCOND – SC (special constable) in (wearing) A BOND (a tie)
8 Some fear loaded aristocrat (4)
EARL – contained in (some) ‘fEAR Loaded’
9 Element in party that shows image – something checked near screen? (4,6)
WING MIRROR – WING (element in party) MIRROR (that shows image)
14 Trench coat disguised unelected expert (10)
TECHNOCRAT – an anagram (disguised) of TRENCH COAT
15 Lad rested uneasily holding front of precarious portable equipment (10)
STEPLADDER – an anagram (uneasily) of LAD RESTED around (holding) P[recarious] (front of precarious)
18 A racing measure covering Aintree essentially is fully extended (2,6)
AT LENGTH – A LENGTH (a racing measure) around (covering [ain]T[ree] (Aintree essentially)
20 Speciality followed by husband and father in ME city (7)
BAGHDAD – BAG (speciality) H (husband) DAD (father)
22 Secretary with affectation retains love for bag on back (7)
PAPOOSE – PA (secretary) POSE (affectation) around (retains) O (love)
23 Flat almost due for renovation characterised by old service system? (6)
FEUDAL – an anagram (for renovation) of FLA[t] DUE
26 Sanctimonious type put pressure on doctor (4)
PRIG – P (pressure) RIG (doctor)
28 Small hallowed bottles (3)
LOW – contained in (bottles) ‘halLOWed’
A not too demanding, pleasant Sunday am solve but I had to enter AGGRIEVE from the def. as I’d only vaguely heard of the politician in question and I didn’t identify OATES as the ‘Antarctic explorer’. I’ve never really thought of Neil DIAMOND as a ‘crooner’, a term I’d have reserved for ‘old’ singers, but as he is now 78 and has been part of the music scene since the mid-1960’s, I guess he qualifies. Hard to believe ‘Sweet Caroline’ came out 50 years ago.
The surface for PAPOOSE was my favourite.
Thanks to Gaufrid and Hypnos
This proved to be an non-taxing enjoyable solve, with 27a RED FLAG my favourite. Many thanks to Gaufrid and Hypnos.
As Rabbit Dave says, a non-taxing enjoyable solve – well, not too taxing; FEUDAL and DIAMOND held us up for a little while, and we couldn’t parse WING MIRROR as we were thinking of a different sort of party.
Favourites included TOLKIEN, MUSCADET and STEPLADDER
Thanks, Hypnos and Gaufrid.
Nice to see Muscadet-my default white in reduced circumstances.