Crossword Genius

No place to stay around outskirts of Teesside for recorder

Ross

I believe the answer is:

notepad

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

'recorder' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.

'no place to stay around outskirts of teesside' is the wordplay.
'no' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation).
'place to stay' becomes 'hotel' (I've seen this before).
'around' means to look at the middle letters.
'outskirts of teesside' becomes 'pad' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
The central letters of 'hotel' are 'ote'.
'n'+'ote'+'pad'='NOTEPAD'

'for' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for notepad that I've seen before include "A secretary may have one" , "Block of writing paper; computer" , "aide-memoire" , "On which one writes" , "Memo-block" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
Want a hint initially instead of a full solution? Install my app