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Big timer tiny Tim is the character - tiny stretched gives big - er = Elizabeth

Ron #9; Neil #10

13 SING(CRACK)LE

16 W(ENTIRE)HOLE

21 "Stretch" a "Little" Dickensian character; Elizabeth is QE II.

Thanks, Jack!

Thanks Tony & Sophie - wow, that was a stretch!

Finished it but completely at a loss to understand rationale of many of clues.Why 22a,24a,26a? Seems to me this borders on the illegitimate. Should there not be a hint à l'Araucaria that some clues have a special nature? I think it is the toughest one I've done in the six years I have been wasting money sending in Prize Xwords.
Does anyone ever win or are the names made up?

AJT just won ! See previous thread!
I won the Indy cryptic a few weeks ago too.

Stephenj #15

22 M(GIVE)ITTEN
24 GO(BLUE)B
26 is explained earlier in this thread.

To answer your last question take a look at the thread titled 'Guardian Prize' on this board.

Congratulations AJT - glad a regular on here made the winners' 'podium!

I think some of the clues in this crossword are definitely unacceptable. I don't think they're all that difficult, but very lazy and self-indulgent.

However, I would say in response to the last comment that I have won the Guardian crossword prize 6 times altogether, on average once every 4 years or so. Although the last time I won was about 5 years ago, I did once win it twice in a row!

If 'hand in glove' and 'down in the mouth' are correct, can anyone please explain why?

down in the mouth - GOB =mouth with blue(down) inside
hand in glove - give it = hand inside mitten (glove)