Crosswords - things that make you go "hmm"

I was doing a crossword the other day. One clue was "Saying: Up the ____" (four letters). Now from the other clues I knew that the word was "A__E" (i.e. two letters between the "A" and the "E"). At this stage I should refer my American readers to footnotes (1) and (2).

There were no other clues - the other two letters did not connect to any other words.

Quite frankly, I think my answer was at least as valid as the one from the crossword setter. I mean, is "Up the ante" really as common as my answer? I think not.

Footnotes:

(1) Unlike American crosswords, British and Australian crosswords do not necessarily have both an "up" and a "down" clue to cover each square.

(2) The British/Australian word for "ass" is "arse".