Crossword Genius

Disastrously holding court without intermediary (8)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

directly

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

'disastrously' is the definition.
Both the definition and answer are adverbs. Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?

'court without intermediary' is the wordplay.
'court' becomes 'ct' (abbreviation used in road names).
'without' is an insertion indicator (some letters go outside or 'without' others).
'intermediary' becomes 'direly' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'ct' put inside 'direly' is 'DIRECTLY'.

'holding' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for directly that I've seen before include "As the crow flies" , "Straight away" , "Immediately or without deviation" , "Without delay or deviation" , "in a trice!" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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