Fallback Position

Ballsack

A crossword puzzle. I am faced with the conundrum of _ ALLBA_ _. My internal lexicon immediately offers up a solution: BALLBAGS. And now I'm seeing BALLBAGS, it's like I'm blind to any other possibility. But is this really likely on the MindGames page of The Times? Let's be rational and search for an alternative. Maybe, just maybe, the B is wrong. Which would leave me with _ ALL _ A _ _.

BALLSACK. This seems more feasible. It's the sort of down-to-earth term that Dr Christian would use on 'Embarrassing Bodies' to put a patient at ease. 'So Lee, I understand you're having problems with your ballsack?' Yes. Perfectly reasonable.

I'm about to ink it in when I realise, sadly, that the answer is FALLBACK. Not BALLBAGS. Not BALLSACK.

Of course, there is nothing to stop me writing the letters I want in those tempting spaces. Occasionally I choose to do this. The only bit I can manage in a cryptic crossword is the cross. They make me disproportionately angry. Like riddles and anything involving a man filling a bath with a dripping tap. But on a busy commuter train there is nothing I enjoy more that filling in a cryptic crossword at breakneck speed. With drivel and rude words. Particularly if I am respectably dressed.

1 Down - Spanish magistrate offers new deal after gangster gets caught (7)  PATATAS
51 Across - Move slowly, being at communion? (4)  ANUS
44  Down - Get very cold outside?  One needs shelter round start of evening. (3, 4) DOG LARD

To any competitive onlookers (and they do exist) I appear to be some kind of autistic savant.  Only those closest know the truth.

My fallback position is ballsack.  Always and forever.