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All done apart from 1d and 17a:

1d - 'Using short cuts when cornering angry group (10,2words)'
I have: ACR??S?OT? but am beginning to doubt some of the crossing letters.

17a - 'Old writer's plunge scatters untold liquid, but not all (6)_'

I have: ?O?SSE

Any clues appreciated, thanks.

1 Across Lots
17 Sowsse (sows se(a))

Thank you so much.

1down had to be Across, something but, having not heard of that expression, I'd never have got there especially as I wouldn't have thought of 'lot' as meaning 'group'.

You're welcome. I still don't really like Across Lots as I can't find it anywhere, but it's all that would fit!

I agree. I, too, have just been searching for it and, like you, cannot find any reference to it anywhere.

Cross-lots | Definition of cross-lots by Merriam-Webster
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cross-lots
by a short cut (as across the fields or vacant lots instead of by the road or sidewalk) —often used with cut ...

Thanks very much, Rossim.

I see it, thank you, but as 'across lots' is not in Merriam-Webster [nor are it or cross-lots, for that matter, in Chambers], I am not convinced that it can be substituted.

Better take it up with the setter!

I also found that it's the name of a book by Horace Lunt.

I'll see what explanation is given in the Fifteensquared blog next Sunday.

Lunt's 'Across Lots' is a weird one. I wonder whether he translated it from some other language as it seems to have been originally published 30 years before Lunt was born.

There is also a book with seemingly identical content, also by Lunt, called 'Short cuts and By-Paths' which might be the explanation for the answer. Fifteensquared will, no doubt, solve the mystery.