As always, I will endeavour to provide an complete and error free account of the workings of this puzzle, and leave the rest of you to spot where I have missed the mark.
Across
1 SACCHARIN sweetener
Ghastly stuff, C7H5NO3S to its very few friends, on my palate vying with aspartame for truly nasty aftertaste. Bag: SAC, tea: CHAR, in: -um- IN.
6 APIAN Â social worker described thus
It’s the other social worker in a crossword this time, the humble bee. Quiet gives you the musicain’s PIANO which is curtailed by one letter after you have spotted that the A at the beginning of the clue is not just there for decoration.
9 RAMADAN Â Religious festival
Is festival the right word? It is, after all, mostly a month of fasting and general abstention. Here, it’s managed: RAN surrounding A + cross: MAD. Extra points for religious probity if you can read the word out loud without automatically following it with “ding dong”.
10 TOPPING Â custard
Chambers gives “to finish off; to dispose of finally” for polishing off, so a reasonable if not immediately obvious synonym for “topping”. If you normally put the custard in first, of course, you might want to argue that topping it ain’t. Be my guest.
11 PODGE Â One with pounds to spare
The word “say” gives you EG, which you reverse and tack on the end of POD, a school of whales, and not YSGOL which is a school in Wales, possibly Betws y CoEd
12 FIRECREST Â Bird
The musician’s loud is F, one is I, others is/are REST, and the park is a REC(reation ground). Gettable from wordplay, and a guess as to what it might look like is probably right.
13 SAWBONES Â Doctor
It helps if you know that BS is a Bachelor of Surgery. Here it surrounds ONE for “a certain person” and follows SAW for “consulted”. Sawbones shortened to Bones for Leonard McCoy.
14 HEAP Â Old car
Not worth much is CHEAP. Fall the front off.
17 NOTE Â Message
The even letters of iN bOtTlE
18 EUROCRAT Â Brussels employee.
You can’t make sprout picker fit, so make do with firm: CO(mpany), regret RUE, tax: RATE. Reverse the first two in tandem, add a cut version of the third.
21 GREAT AUNT Â Relative
Here’s where my world fell apart as I entered a Bristolian GREY TAUNT. Amazing how hard it is to spot the error. the ultimate in complaininG, about: RE, a: A, gibe: TAUNT.
22 TACIT Â understood.
The food found in short supply is TACo, it’s IT
24 GORDIUS very old ruler
You know him from the knotty problem solved at a stroke by Alexander the Great. Attempt: GO, straight line: RADIUS, remove the A.
25 RAILMEN On-line workers (tee hee)
Hidden (though not very well) in winteR AILMENTs
26 LEHAR Â Musician
A “reinterpreted” Mahler missing the first letter.
27 DUDE RANCH Â holiday resort
California, form which you only need the initial C, helps to point you towards this US style vacation spot. Surround the C wth an anagram (gathering) of A HUNDRED
Down
1 SCRIP Â There might have been money in it
An old word for a traveling bag, cf Luke 10.4 in the KJV “Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes”, and here “to write for TV” or SCRIPT contracted by one letter.
2 COME DOWN TO EARTH Â face reality
Wake up provides COME TO, sad gives the “nursed” DOWN and a broken heart is EARTH if you break it in the right way.
3 HEDGEROW Â Shrubs
Have no fear, thiis is not some green excrescence you’ve never heard of. “Fellow would cultivate” gives HE’D GROW, into which you insert you insert the E found at the end of cottage. See what I mean about smooth cluing?
4 RUN AFTER Â pursue
Rugby, or the 15 a side version anyway, is RU, A supporter is FAN, which is reversed, and a short period is TER(m). Assemble.
5 NOTARY Â Legal official
A(rea) surrounded by NO TRY for no go.
6 ASPECT Â viewpoint
A faction give A SECT (once again, don’t ignore the A). Insert P from P(olitical) leader.
7 IF I WERE A RICH MAN Â song
OK, here we go. On Internet connection gives RE WIFI, and that’s “turned”. Another version of H(ot) AMERICAN is EARICHMAN, which when correctly spaced gives Tevye’s big number. Mrs Z went to see FotR with her dad shortly after revealing she wanted to marry a Goy. Oy oy oy!
8 NIGHTSPOT Â Disco
Which it might well be. Near: NIGH, Main: TOP, Street: ST. Revererse the last two in tandem and add to the first.
13 SYNAGOGAL Like religious edifice
The select-one-out-of-seven note is G, some is ANY, and the Nigerian port is the one you’ve heard of, LAGOS. Tuck two into one and reverse the lot.
15 BUTTERED Â covered with spread.
Complete gives you UTTER, which you insert into the odd letters of BrEaD. Is it me, or are there rather o lot of insertion clues today?
16 COSTLIER
Lettuce see, do we know of any other Greek islands of sufficient brevity? COS, its bank a TIER, the pound an L, appropriately inserted. That word again.
19 ÉTRIER  rope ladder
For use on mountains. Energy E, and person testing is a TRIER. Add accents to choice. If you can.
20 BUSSED Â transported by coach
Picked up is not a soundzlike indicator, but another reversal instruction, in this case of DES, French “from the” if you ignore the grammar, and SUB, warship.
23 TENCH Â Fish
The unknown number is N, and the school a TECH. Insert (aaargh!) one into the other.
My FOI was ‘synagogal’, which I constructed from the cryptic, and my first thought was ‘this isn’t going to be easy’.
I always think of Aja when I see ‘dude ranch’.
I was taken to see Fiddler on the Roof on its theatrical release by a female admirer. I was 12. (It was the 70s.) Rewatching it recently, apart from the classic Topol number, the rest is a bit of a bore: the ‘daughter marries ne’er-do-well’ story told three times while the Russians revolt off screen.
Since you asked Z, my unknown was ETRIER and my vaguely-knowns were FIRECREST, EUROCRAT and GORDIUS.
Relieved that the shrubs clue wasn’t an obscurity, HEDGEROW being quite familiar. In fact I even know not to be alarmed if there’s a bustle in it. Invaluable advice, I’ve always found.
Thanks setter and Z (BTW Z, I thought it was tack rather than taco at 22ac, not that it matters a jot).
….. ‘Cause you know sometimes words have two meanings.
Only unk. was the rope ladder. Now I know that it’s also French for “stirrup” — that should come in handy one day no doubt.
As for 22ac, I’d assumed TAC{k} (as in “hard tack”) rather than TAC{o}. Nice to see I was wrong again. At least I’m consistent.
Is this the first time we’ve had “gathering” as an anagram indicator (27ac)? If they ever let me loose on compiling (which the gods forbid), I’d be more likely to go for “wandering” in such contexts.
Now I must, indeed, wander off.
ktoo. I’m not sure how it could be construed as wrong!Informal, food, esp. when regarded as inferior or distasteful. See also “hardtack”.
Reminds me that my Old Dad and his ex-army mates always used to refer to cheese as “bung”.
TACIT was biffed but on returning to it later I thought of ‘tack’ for ‘food’ and never even considered ‘taco’.
TACK is food as per Chambers. I do not like TACOs much.
FOI 12ac FIRECREST LOI 24ac GORDIUS
COD 27ac DUDE RANCH
horryd Shanghai
My unknowns: SCRIP (at least as a purse – I know it as a share transaction) and DUDE RANCH (Bognor Regis is the limit of my knowledge of holiday resorts)
State Governor on phone hears of big publicity opportunity in remote town: “Nothing as big as that has happened in the state since we stole it from the Indians.”
PR Guru standing next to him: “Borrowed…”
Edited at 2016-02-18 01:30 pm (UTC)
Best line – not from the movie but from Joel Macrae after making it: ‘Life’s too short to make two movies with Veronica Lake.’
I thought ‘polishing off’ and TOPPING were both synonyms for ‘killing’. I have Collins on my side.
I thought I knew SCRIP, but it turns out I didn’t. The whole point about a SCRIP dividend is that it doesn’t contain money. And I thought I knew what an ETRIER was, but again it turns out I didn’t. Although I think this may be an English meaning of a French word that doesn’t exist in the original. C’est la vie.
Detest the song and the show it comes from – must now et it out of my mind
– relief to get HEDGEROW instead of obscure plant
– dislike of Topol song
– question costlier = incurring more losses but I suppose it could be men in a battle not cash
– only vague memory of Gordius so used an aid to check
– much pleasure from this tasty puzzle.
Several interruptions, so no reliable time, but around 40-45 minutes in the end.
Very enjoyable puzzle, shame it beat me.
Edited at 2016-02-18 12:35 pm (UTC)
Edited at 2016-02-18 02:32 pm (UTC)