Two-part clues: okay?

[super_aardvark]

How acceptable is it to use two-part clues in a theme?  Something where the answer is two words that go together (a name or a phrase), but each word is clued separately -- something like "____ hockey / cat and ____" for FIELD MOUSE (to give a really lame example).

[mmcbs]

Themes based on cluing gimmicks are often interesting. In order for it to work, I would think there needs to be some unifying element. In other words I don't think it would work if th theme entries were just random two-word phrases and the clues just straight definitions of the two words.

[super_aardvark]

Thanks, that's encouraging.  All of the two-word phrases would be related, at a minimum (all names of animals, say, to follow my previous example).  Do you think that would be enough, or do I need to come up with clues that are also related in some way?

[mmcbs]

It's hard to know without seeing what you have in mind. For example,  if you had BENGAL TIGER clued as "Asian bay / Detroit ballplayer", that might work. If you'd be interested in running a few entries by me, I'd be glad to take a look (mcclain.salem at gmail)