Gloucester Premier League Frampton Cotterell 7 Chipping Sodbury 20 CHIPPING Sodbury have given themselves a chance to reach the top five of the Gloucester Premier League at Christmas as they won their derby with Frampton Cotterell on Saturday.

The keen rivalry between the two sides has always thrown up interesting games and extraordinary feats.

While Sodbury enjoy a superior position in the league, Frampton belied theirs with a performance full of effort and keen determination.

This was evident in the opening exchanges, which all went the way of the home side, so much so that it was a full 20 minutes before Sodbury put a foot in Frampton’s 22.

Fortunately, Sodbury had men like Lee Ralph, Dave Guest and Tom Farthing to call on.

They tackled everything and occasionally showed real pace to stop Frampton.

The Sods were forced to soak up heavy pressure on their try line on numerous occasions during the first period. Their composure and steely desire saw them either turn the ball over or force a penalty to relieve the pressure.

The Sodbury lineout was also struggling a little to provide steady possession but out of the melee rose Sean Palmer.

Palmer was sure-footed with an ability to catch and control no matter what the conditions.

On 30 minutes, Sodbury forced a lineout on Frampton’s 22.

This time, Matt Cook sprung skyward to provide a perfect off-the-top delivery. Ryan Halford found Dan Bradley, who made a mockery of the queachy surface as he glided through the defence.

On his shoulder was Luke Carnaby (pictured above. Pic: Jeff Gendall Photography), who knows his way to the try line.

He gratefully accepted the pass to sear in next to the posts for the opening try. Bradley converted.

As the half drew to a close, Sodbury rolled the dice at a Frampton lineout.

The ball was won against the throw and Farthing bravely cleared it up.

Once again, Bradley surged forward but left the hard work to Carnaby.

From 15m, he stepped past one defender and was then dragged three men over on his way to securing his brace.

Bradley converted a second time and the Sods went into the break 0–14 up.

The second half began with Chris Hamilton making some of his trademark thundering tackles to thwart any Frampton progress.

He also provided some real go-forward with ball in hand and continues to be rock steady under the high ball.

Frampton’s young guns battled bravely in the mud after the break and dominated periods of play.

With just a little more composure at key moments, they could have scraped a win.

Frampton were rewarded for their tenacity early in the second half when they scored a close-range try from prop Ali Scott.

Each time Sodbury got into a decent attacking position, they were hampered by handling errors or conceding penalties. During the last 10 minutes, it was left to unflinching fly half Bradley to convert a pair of penalties from 25m and 15m respectively to deny Frampton a losing bonus point.