The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 8 letter word HASTINGS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
H
A
S
T
I
N
G
S
More clues leading to the result HASTINGS
- Battle, as things going to pieces
- Resort town possesses elements husband overlooked
- Warren maybe in seaside location
- Wild as nights in a Sussex town
- Battle wound acquires bandages
- Crones blocking way in battleground
- Port holds baggage abandoned by 20 originally
- One accompanying sleuth has to accept ex-Police Chief
- Not a good place for Harold, as things turned out
- 16 Historic town, lice infection over, guarded by witches
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "South Coast town" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case south coast town = hastings.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.