Understate personal record recalled in diary regularly (8)
I believe the answer is:
downplay
'understate' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't judge whether this works.
'personal record recalled in diary regularly' is the wordplay.
'personal' becomes 'own' (eg one's own possessions are personal possessions).
'record' becomes 'lp' (abbreviation for long play record).
'recalled' is a reversal indicator (to recall can mean to bring something back).
'in' indicates putting letters inside.
'regularly' means one should take alternating letters (regularly take one letter, leave next etc.).
The alternating letters of 'diary' are 'day'.
'lp' written backwards gives 'pl'.
'own'+'pl'='ownpl'
'ownpl' inserted inside 'day' is 'DOWNPLAY'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for downplay that I've seen before include "Make light of" , "Avoid promotion" , "Not make a lot of" , "moderate" , "Treat as unimportant" .)
