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Those before those before the pictures.
(5) --n-s.

I think my local paper has blundered with the clue!

shorts i think?

That's a letter too many, emf. I'll post the paper's solution tomorrow. Just now, I am stuck!

The answer to the puzzle is "nines". I cant see where this answer comes from. Help???

My reading of it is this:
In a deck of cards, Jack, Queen and King are the 'picture' cards. The ones before those are tens, and the ones before those are nines.

I do follow your line of reasoning, Bullfrog, but I am not convinced, albeit you make a brave attempt at a solution. My opinion is that there is a blunder in the clue, otherwise the expertise on this forum would have cracked it hours ago! I do wonder what the paper shall say in the morning!

I admit it's an attempt to rationalise what may be a mistake or just a poor clue -- obviously I don't know what puzzle it is or the normal level of clueing. Sadly some of the locals can be quite sloppy.

I agree, Bullfrog. This crossword appeared on Tuesday in the Dundee Courier and Advertiser and the difficulty level in this newspaper is at a lower level compared to Times/Indie/ Guardian, etc. Unless I am completely dense, I think they have blunderd.

Bullfrog, I think your reasoning is sound. When I read the one before the one before, I thought it might be a misprint, but that makes sense to me when you explain it.

P