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A Very Happy & Healthy New Year to all the crossword fans.
A fairly easy puzzle this week, but I' not sure of my answer to 18D " Encounter knight's place of safety" *A*E*, I can get a word for refuge starting with 'H' but not sure of the first part of the clue.

First four letters synony for encounter + an annotation for Knight in a popular board game.

Hello, Mamya,

I had the same problem as Devonian, and I'm afraid your
reply doesn't solve it. Can you please be more explicit.

Think of encounter in terms of meet with or experience ( for example, a problem)

Well you have the correct answer - Check what the last letter signifies in Chess and the rest should become clear.

I wasn't happy about this clue either.

Also 22a
Uncool French marshal blocking road (5)

I've been through contortions, but I can't make it any other than "road blocking French marshal"!

Maybe a word meaning uncool
French Marshall ***
with Rd inside ?

I can't see anything wrong with the clue, what am I missing?

I can't see a problem with this, Chris?
Maybe if you look at it as a block to the expansion of the word "rd"?
"rd" rather than road?

"road blocking french marshal" is more obvious.....
but I think either way of presenting the answer is all right!

The regular RT compiler has often used the word "block" or "blocking" meaning "contain" or "containing"