CROSSWORD
Solve the crossword in the usual way. When completed correctly, the shaded squares, reading top to bottom, will spell out your prize answer.
ACROSS
3 The ___ of the pudding is in the eating, saying (5) 6 Board used to communicate with spirits (5) 7 Thoroughfare associated with memory and Penny (4) 8 Frida ___, Mexican artist noted for her brightly coloured self-portraits (5) 10 Perform better than other, surpass (5) 11 Card game where you might shout for gin! (5) 12 Kenneth ___, actor and director who returned as Hercule Poirot in Death On The Nile in October (7) 14 Flower widely considered to be the floral emblem of the Netherlands (5) 17 Extreme pain (5) 20 Get better after an illness, eg (7) 22 Permit (5) 23 Long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, as found in Norway (5) 25 __ __ I see you first!, expression (3,2) 26 Man-eating giant (4) 27 Odds and ___, betting chances (5) 28 In tennis, the score of 40-40 (5)
DOWN
1 Country in South America, capital Bogatá (8) 2 Never look a ___ horse in the mouth, adage (4) 3 In Indian cooking, a piece of vegetable or meat coated in a seasoned batter and deep-fried (6) 4 Flowering stem of a head of broccoli or cauliflower (6) 5 Muppets drummer (6) 9 British actor who impressed with a star turn as a villain in Paddington 2, and is now back on the small screen in The Undoing, opposite Nicole Kidman (4,5) 13 Convent sister (3) 15 Mysterious spacecraft (1,1,1) 16 ___ Lost, epic poem by Milton (8) 18 Scientific study of eggs (6) 19 Expressed tiredness (6) 21 Wake up and smell the ___, expression (6) 24 Kiln (4)