Solving time: 12 minutes. A little harder than some. The presence of Q, X & Z sent me searching for a pangram but we are missing Y, and amazingly H!
As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. “Aural wordplay” is in quotation marks. I usually omit all reference to juxtaposition indicators unless there is a specific point that requires clarification.
 Across |
|
| 1 | Commotion about king affected community labour force? (4,4) |
| WORK CAMP | |
| ROW (commotion) reversed [about], K (king), CAMP (affected) | |
| 5 | Poor average (4) |
| MEAN | |
| Two meanings | |
| 8 | That Parisian behind investigator’s animosity (5) |
| PIQUE | |
| PI (Private Investigator), QUE (‘that’ Parisian) | |
| 9 | Chat following rugby player’s ailment (7) |
| LOCKJAW | |
| LOCK (rugby player), JAW (chat). Aka tetanus. | |
| 11 | Mathematician‘s ISA account recently opened with large amount (5,6) |
| ISAAC NEWTON | |
| ISA, AC, NEW (ISA. account. recently opened), TON (large amount). Tautology alert as ISA stands for ‘Individual Savings Account’, but for crossword purposes we can lift and separate. | |
| 13 | Last pair leaving Anglican service regardless (4,2) |
| EVEN SO | |
| EVENSO{ng} (Anglican service) [last pair leaving] | |
| 14 | Rex and Victor in east somehow go without food (6) |
| STARVE | |
| R (Rex) + V (Victor) contained by [in] anagram [somehow] of EAST | |
| 17 | Accept dog finds butterfly (11) |
| SWALLOWTAIL | |
| SWALLOW (accept – he swallowed my excuse), TAIL (dog) | |
| 20 | Mentally assessed one final letter by editor during drink (5,2) |
| SIZED UP | |
| I (one) + Z (final letter) + ED (editor) contained by [during] SUP (drink) | |
| 21 | African resort‘s influx orderly, to an extent (5) |
| LUXOR | |
| Hidden in [to an extent] {inf}LUX OR{derly} | |
| 22 | Small loft and lounge (4) |
| SLOB | |
| S (small), LOB (loft). I don’t think I’ve ever seen ‘slob’ on its own as a verb, only in expressions such as ‘slob around’, but ‘lounge’ can take that too so the clue is sound. | |
| 23 | Relative beginners in glam rock and pop (8) |
| GRANDDAD | |
| G{lam} + R{ock} [beginners], AND, DAD (pop). The double-D spelling always looks wrong to me. | |
| Down |
|
| 1 | Cried, recalling exercises restrained by weight (4) |
| WEPT | |
| PE (exercises) reversed [recalling], contained [restrained] by WT (weight) | |
| 2 | Need about one twentieth of a ream of paper (7) |
| REQUIRE | |
| RE (about), QUIRE (one twentieth of a ream of paper). Both measures of paper can vary, a quire being 24 or 25 sheets.. | |
| 3 | Dictator, unfortunately upset, finally spurned cold food (6,5) |
| CAESAR SALAD | |
| CAESAR (dictator), then ALAS (unfortunately) reversed [upset], {spurne}D [finally]. Created by restaurateur Caesar Cardini in 1924. | |
| 4 | Hate macho guards in charge (6) |
| MALICE | |
| MALE (macho) contains [guards] IC (in charge) | |
| 6 | Fool taking ecstasy twice and joint regularly (5) |
| EEJIT | |
| E+E (ecstasy twice), J{o}I{n}T [regularly]. Scottish / Irish dialect apparently. | |
| 7 | It isn’t surprising, these days, nitrogen in European river (2,6) |
| NO WONDER | |
| NOW (these days), then N (nitrogen) contained by [in] ODER (European river) | |
| 10 | Depressed broadcasting centres about to collapse (11) |
| CRESTFALLEN | |
| Anagram [broadcasting] of CENTRES containing [about] FALL (collapse) | |
| 12 | Papa with wayward sisters continues resolutely (8) |
| PERSISTS | |
| P (Papa), anagram [wayward] of SISTERS | |
| 15 | Loosened the Spanish guitar during record peripherally (7) |
| RELAXED | |
| EL (‘the’ Spanish) + AXE (guitar) contained by [during] R{ecor}D [peripherally]. Originally ‘axe’ was slang for ‘saxophone’ which perhaps makes a kind of sense but later for some reason it came to mean ‘guitar’. | |
| 16 | Perhaps thief initially steals device for windscreen (6) |
| SWIPER | |
| S{teals} [initially], WIPER (device for windscreen). I’ve never met this as an agent noun but SOED says it dates from the 19th century. | |
| 18 | Article I love involving unknown World War II battle (5) |
| ANZIO | |
| A (definite article) + I+ 0 ( love) containing [involving] Z (unknown). A campaign lasting nearly 5 months in 1944 ending in June with the liberation of Rome. | |
| 19 | Reminder for daughter (4) |
| PROD | |
| PRO (for), D (daughter) | |
* derogatory comment deleted *