You solve these Word Ladders by changing one letter in the first word to form a new word and then repeat the process until you spell the ending word. The number of letter-change moves it took me follows each clue.

Example: To change Mice into Rats I made 4 moves...
mice -1-> mite -2-> mate -3-> mats -4-> rats



= 1. BAT MAN [2]
= 2. FALL BACK [3]
= 3. BALL PARK [3]
= 4. PLAY DEAD [5]
= 5. PLAY DEAD [4]
= 6. ROCK SALT [5]
= 7. POOL RACK [5]

7. POOL cool cook rook rock RACK

2. fall, ball, balk, back

Hi soot.

6. rock, rack, sack, salk, salt

3. BALL balk bark park

Bernie

1. bat, ban, man

Well done gang .. all solutions are "on target"

Hi curly

I have a 5 but can't come up with a 4.

4. play - plat - peat - heat - head - dead

Good one Cue

I'll let # 5 simmer some more

5. PLAY plan pean dean DEAD

The only "pean" I could come up with was "peen"

Cue,

pean ( variant of paean)
1. Music: A song of joyful praise or exultation. 2. A fervent expression of joy or praise.

Jema

Well done Jema

New word cue