Launches advances holding soldiers caught (9)

I believe the answer is:

commences

'launches' is the definition.

'advances holding soldiers caught' is the wordplay.
'advances' becomes 'comes'.
'holding' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'soldiers' becomes 'men' (I've seen this before).
'caught' becomes 'c' (cricket abbreviation).
'men'+'c'='menc'
'comes' placed around 'menc' is 'COMMENCES'.

(Another definition for commences that I've seen is " Opens".)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.

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