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This is an excellent puzzle with a reasonable amount of difficulty. Thankfully the end game is relatively straightforward and produces a nice new grid.

I’m new to this puzzle but extremely intrigued. The instructions always baffle me so can anyone offer guidance please?
For example, this week, what does “wordplay in every clue yields an extra letter” mean? Is the extra letter in the answer? I think that the extra letter in Foreign Trainees from China is the letter i, am I on the right lines? I also have another clue with a spare n in the answer. They are the only two I’ve managed to solve though
How on earth might you determine where the clues go?
I’m usually OK with alphabetical crosswords (I.e, the guardian cryptic) but this looks a much harder proposition.
Ps also new to this forum although I’ve used it for years. Everyone seems really friendly so I thought today - why not register and join in the fun.

Welcome, Callme...

Yes, the 'extra letter in wordplay' means that the answer doesn't contain a letter indicated. Your Trainees one is a good example - 'foreign' indicates an anagram, but there's one letter too many. Another easier-spotted one is ''Vessel poet rejected' - a common 'vessel, but the 'rejected poet is one letter longer...

I'm not great with slotting in the answers, but a good place to start is to look at the clue lengths and work with those that have the fewest number of entries. There are loads of six-letter words, not so many ten-letter ones - so I had a bash at seeing what could fit around the longer entries. (Some placements can be ruled out if there's no six-letter word starting with J, say - just an example, not in yesterday's puzzle!)

In this crossword the easiest way to start entering the clues in the grid
is to solve all the ten and five letter clues first.
I is the excess letter in Foreign Trainess from China.
Normally with one of these blank crosswords you need to solve 50 to 75 percent of the clues before entering any in the grid.

I thought this was an excellent workout by Kruger. As mentioned before, the 10 letter words were my way in. I think I found the 7's helpful too. (The 'Dynamic person born...was the last of the 10 letters to be solved). The penny dropped quite quickly once I started to get a few entries in place.

I thought afterwards that it's possible to tentatively ID the unclued entries from the grid symmetry but I haven't followed up on that.

Thank you everyone for your advice.
I’ll tackle it with renewed gusto now.
While away from it, I’m enjoying thinking of possible picnic locations though I can’t say I’ve thought of any abandoned ones yet!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend.
And, just in case anyone else is feeling like me, isn’t it heartbreaking about Andrew Simmons.
(Sorry to dampen the mood)

Callme... glad we could help a little.

PS I have no idea who Andrew Simmons is - sorry!

Sorry Malone, my bad: it’s Symonds.
Also, feel bad for introducing this element to my post - I don’t want to contravene posting rules on my debut.
Not getting very far (I,e, anywhere) with the clues, but still enjoying it.

Hi Callme...., I saw the news last night on the BBC Sports website, he was a great player.

Don't be too disheartened, preambles often need to be read multiple times, at least by me, before their true meaning becomes clear:-)

Agree re Symonds - very shocking and sad to hear that this morning.

Enjoyed this one - accessible theme and a good level of difficulty with a clear endgame.

My "in" to start filling the grid was looking at where two words start with the same letter.