Cryptic crossword No 1,500

It's been over a year! Like last time this is deliberately untested. I've been trying to formulate a consistent set of rules for myself as I find constraints make me more creative. After last years experiment this is again experimental (for me) but in a very different way. Again the quibbliest moan will be welcomed and expect debate on said quibbles. I've added some potential discussion points in the annotations to hopefully get the ball rolling.

Welcome back! This started off deceptively straightforward with two of the long ones going straight in, but I slowed down from there, with a few at the end holding me up for longer than I'd like to admit. 5d is magnificent. Loved the sirdakka reference at 6d but wonder how that will go down with the causal MyC visitor (if there is such a thing). Also liked 18a for the 'station', very clever and I only got it through back-parsing. Spoiling comments and responses to your discussion point in reply!

Welcome back, Blah! I really enjoyed this - in particular 26a, 2d, 5d, and 7d. Spoilers and so on to follow...

Thanks Blah, good stuff - faves include 1a, 19a, 26a & 5d. As you've specifically asked for feedback 😃, spoilers ...

Great to see you back here Blah. Good fun and I thought it was going to be a breeze from the first few but ultimately I ground to a sticky halt in need of reveals in the SW. Favourites: 10a, 12a, 23a, 2d, 5d and 6d (inside baseball or not). Spoilers…

Nice to see you back with a typically tight puzzle Blah. I liked 12a, 26a, 5d and 20d in particular. Spoilers in Reply. Thanks. PM

Firstly apologies it's been so long I'm going to plead life and Christmas getting in the way. I'll answer a few queries and comments directly and possibly ask a follow up question or two, but here's a general response to all.

Great fun, and I particularly liked 17d, 12a, 15a (yep nice), 25a, 27a (because I can use it in class; they'll get it), 6d (it still holds up), 7d (a beaut). Looking forward to checking out all of the comments soon. Not so sure about infected* (though I do like 9a) or "is" for "could." 4d was way too hard for me but I trust familiar enough for broadsheet solvers. (I just saw now that there's a double p-------!) Thanks again, Blah.