The scheduled blogger has not turned up so here is an analysis of the clues with no further commentary because there are other things that I should be doing on a Sunday afternoon.
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Across
1 Family doctor, popular person who’s most important (7)
KINGPIN – KIN (family) GP (doctor) IN (popular)
5 Own son breaking model steamship (7)
POSSESS – S (son) in (breaking) POSE (model) SS (steamship)
9 Pioneer prepared to accept very soft pizza topping (9)
PEPPERONI – an anagram (prepared) of PIONEER around (to accept) PP (very soft)
10 Letter for example retained by old mother (5)
OMEGA – EG (for example) in (retained by) O (old) MA (mother)
11 Service, apart from last quarter, all the same (4,2)
EVEN SO – EVENSO[ng] (service, apart from last quarter)
12 Start moving occasion with procedure to establish attendance (4,4)
ROLL CALL – ROLL (start moving) CALL (occasion)
14 One demanding power in wild talk for once receiving resistance (7,5)
CONTROL FREAK – an anagram (wild) of TALK FOR ONCE around (receiving) R (resistance)
17 Pompous person, with material beginning to expose scandal, keeping quiet (7,5)
STUFFED SHIRT – STUFF (material) E[xpose] (beginning to expose) plus DIRT (scandal) around (keeping) SH (quiet)
20 Substandard data about terrain omitting odd features? Right (8)
INFERIOR – INFO (data) around (about) [t]E[r]R[a]I[n] (terrain omitting odd features) followed by R (right)
21 Man felt free from boundaries in place of worship (6)
CHAPEL – CHAP (man) [f]EL[t] (felt free from boundaries)
23 Once more in Narnia, gather round (5)
AGAIN – hidden (in) reversal (round) in ‘narNIA GAther’
24 Profanity? Wise to restrain cold anger (9)
SACRILEGE – SAGE (wise) around (to retain) C (cold) RILE (anger)
25 Be revolutionary in speculation, losing nothing as a result of that (7)
THEREBY – BE reversed (revolutionary) in THE[o]RY (speculation, losing nothing)
26 Break line between west and east in struggle (7)
WRESTLE – REST (break) L (line) in (between) W (west) E (east)
Down
1 Captain releasing small fish (6)
KIPPER – [s]KIPPER (captain releasing small)
2 Relative conclusions of Einstein accurate? What a relief (6)
NEPHEW – [einstei]N [accurat]E (conclusions of Einstein accurate) PHEW (what a relief)
3 Singular fraud upset arbiter in attendance for meeting with journalists (5,10)
PRESS CONFERENCE – S (singular) CON (fraud) REF (arbiter) reversed (upset) in PRESENCE (attendance)
4 Retreat certainly not all right (4)
NOOK – NO (certainly not) OK (all right)
5 Playing solo, hippy capturing hearts with outlook (10)
PHILOSOPHY – an anagram (playing) of SOLO HIPPY around (capturing) H (hearts)
6 Having many options impaired intensity, group of singers mostly admitted (6,3,6)
SPOILT FOR CHOICE – SPOILT (impaired) FORCE (intensity) around (admitted) CHOI[r] (group of singers mostly)
7 Ecstatic about electronic volume being raised (8)
ELEVATED – ELATED (ecstatic) around (about) E (electronic) V (volume)
8 Note king in decline after start of scene in ballet (4,4)
SWAN LAKE – LA (note) K (king) in WANE (decline) after S[cene] (start of scene)
13 Poor soul consumed by duty is working diligently (10)
STUDIOUSLY – an anagram (poor) of SOUL in (consumed by) an anagram (working) of DUTY IS
15 Candidate with dodgy past going round nation (8)
ASPIRANT – an anagram (dodgy) of PAST around (going round) IRAN (nation)
16 Franchise hurt, losing energy over time (8)
SUFFRAGE – SUFF[e]R (hurt, losing energy) AGE (time)
18 Scoff after United lead, being optimistic (6)
UPBEAT – EAT (scoff) after U (united) PB (lead)
19 Run away from church and cheat (6)
FLEECE – FLEE (run away from) CE (church)
22 Boat in sea initially north of Guernsey? (4)
SCOW – S[ea] (sea initially) COW (Guernsey)
Thank you Everyman for an enjoyable puzzle and especially thank you Gaufrid for stepping in.
All went quite smoothly, though GAMMA (homophone of gammer) first came to my mind for 10a, but it would not parse of course, and I felt doubtful about KIPPER being a ‘fish’ as such – I know you can ask for one at the fishmonger’s, but correctly it is a kippered herring or other fish, however the COED says it applies to a male salmon in the spawning season so there is no need to split hairs.
12 Across – Occasion = call ? I still don’t see it. Can anyone give me a sentence were occasion can be substituted for call? *scratches head*
Marcol63 @2
Occasion and call are synonyms in the sense of need/reason/cause. An example would be “this is the first time that I’ve had occasion/call to complain”.
Extremely grumpy at being fooled by Guernsey and thinking Cow must be some other island in the Channel. Also couldn’t quite fathom why NG was last quarter, went looking for R or W. Doh.
Everything else fine although the SW corner took longer than it should.
Thanks for stepping in Gaufrid.
One of the easiest to solve for some time. Swan lake was obvious but not heard of la for a note. As I typed this
I had a eureka moment, of course a musical note.Thanks Gaufrid9
I too was looking up a map to see what island was north of Guernsey when an image of a very happy looking Daisy popped up. Felt quite embarrassed having to look up synonyms for franchise – you think you know what it means but to come up with a synonym was a challenge. Favourite clues were 11ac 1ac and 1d
Stupidly my LOI was 2d you’d think there were only so many relatives you could name. It just didnt come till the last stroke.
Found this quite difficult going. Didn’t help that I put call roll instead of roll call. I was also fooled by the Guernsey cow and thought it must be an island. I’m more familiar with Jersey cows.
Liked 1 ac and 21 ac and 1 d.
I really enjoyed this one & found it quite easy until the last few. I thought 2d was a great misdirection
Nothing too fancy here. A meat and potatoes effort overall
For some reason I found this one very easy. Got on Everyman’s wavelength and sailded through. Struggled a bit with 16 down (suffrage) a bit, but.
Whoops; “sailded” should have been “sailed” of course. My excuse is that the small font makes it hard to proof read, what with my ageing eyes.