Financial Times 13,516 – Hamilton

Hamilton’s puzzles are growing on me; he seems to be developing more of a personality of his own with each and every appearance.  Stylistically there are a few Libertarian peccadillos, but I get the impression of a far from complacent setter who’s ever-diligent when it comes to burnishing the clue surfaces.

Across
1 DILETTANTE – (title)* in Dante.  Probably the “path of least resistance” in terms of wordplay treatment options, but deftly handled nonetheless.
6 GASH – double def’n.  A rather archaic form of ‘ghastly’, it seems to me.  Puts me in mind, for some reason, of something an Evelyn Waugh character would probably say.
9 TANTALISED (N + TA) in (details)*.
10 MARL – mar + l{ayer}.
12 INSPECTORATE – inspect + orate.
15 ESCAPEE – not sure I fully get the pun here.  Is it simply implying, “not a copper, but one who flees from them”?
16 SEDATED – (stone dead)* – no.  Least favourite clue by far.  Don’t care much for ‘amputation’ when the letters referred to seem to be more of a ‘disembowelment’.  Plus where is the reversal indicator?
17 FIESTAS – (SATS + e{xasperate} + if)<. Swiftly followed by my favourite clue of the bunch.
19 ENHANCE – alternate letters in being + {c}hance{s}.  ‘Even being’ may be a little too concise/inaccurate for some tastes, but I think the intentions are clear.
20 CONTEMPTUOUS – Con + tempt + UO [initial letters] + US.
23 ITEM – double def’n.
24 REGARDLESS – regard less.
25 NUTS – initial letters (=’in pole position’).
26 SOLE TRADER – a touch corny, but it raised a smile anyway.

Down
1 DATE – double def’n.
2 LANK – hidden.
3 TRAINSPOTTER – trains + potter.  First time I ever seen this word defined in a non-derogatory way!
4 ARIPPLE – ri{p} in apple.  A strange looking word, that looks like it’d be more at home in an advanced/barred puzzle.  I initially tried to justify ATIPPLE here before hitting on the correct variant.
5 TIERCES – (I in secret)<. I wasn’t helped by the definition here, being under the impression that a tierce is a bet on a horse race, rather than the race itself.
7 ADAMANTINE – (Anna made it)*.
8 HALBERDIER – Hal + be + (rider)*.  An  new word for me, but readily imputed from the (more familiar) weaponry stem.
11 COLD-SHOULDER – should in colder.  Good verb/noun ambiguity via ‘Refuse’.
13 PERFECTION – solved from def’n alone. 
14 SCREEN TEST – double def’n.  I thought the use of ‘fitting’ here to be exquisite; segueing neatly from the first def’n and subtly adding precision to the second.  Almost made this a (very rare) double def’n winner of clue-of-the-day.
18 SUPREMO – (rep)* in Sumo.
19 EMULATE – Emu + late.
21 TEND – ten d (pre-decimal ‘pennies’).
22 USER – ruse, with the r shifted.