Crossword Genius

Sewer, lake and river up in northeast (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

needle

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'sewer' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)

'lake and river up in north-east' is the wordplay.
'lake' becomes 'L' (geographical abbreviation).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'river up' becomes 'eed' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'north east' becomes 'ne'.
'l' after 'eed' is 'eedl'.
'eedl' going into 'ne' is 'NEEDLE'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for needle that I've seen before include "Hostility - annoy - sewing tool" , "spur" , "Continually annoy" , "Cleopatra's" , "Annoy - syringe" .)

I've seen this clue in The Sun and The Telegraph.
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