CHIPPING Sodbury find themselves in a disappointing seventh place at the halfway point of the Greene King IPA Gloucestershire County League campaign, writes Steve Hill.

Sodbury were in a good position in their latest outing, away to high-flying Thornbury 2nds, but suffered a late collapse to suffer a 35-run reverse.

Requiring 238, the visitors had established strong foundations for the win at 152-4 but the innings dropped away to undo good work by James Luscombe (52), skipper Jason Thomson (34) and opener Sourish Mukherjee (25).

Earlier, Mason Poole was the pick of the Sodbury attack with superb figures of 4-32 from nine overs of seam with spinner Dan Brown returning 1-31 off eight as Thornbury reached 237-8.

Sodbury now launch the second half of their season with a trip to third-placed Kingsholm and hopes of moving up what remains a very close league.

Sodbury 2nds, meanwhile, battled hard before succumbing by four wickets at home to Great Rissington in Division Three.

Mark Graham (26) and Jacob Havard (21) top scored in Sodbury’s challenge of 127 before Rissington also found run-making a battle, slipping to 30-4 as Ed Holden (2-44) and Jay Penfold (2-30) made inroads.

Havard also claimed two wickets but Rissington chipped away at their target to complete the win.

Sodbury 3rds had a tough day at the office in Division Eight of the Bristol & District League, suffering a nine-wicket home reverse against Thornbury 3rds.

But Sodbury 4ths enjoyed a terrific 54-run success away to Hampset 3rds in Division 15.

Opener Ali Scott set the tone with a boisterous 69 off 43 balls (ten fours and a six) while Mike Jenkins contributed an unbeaten 60 as the visitors reached a total of 237 all out.

Hampset were then restricted to 183-8, veteran spinner Tony Garton rolling back the years with a haul of 3-27 off eight while there were also important spells from captain Rosie Tregear (1-25 off eight) and Tom Brown (1-17 off five).

CHIPPING Sodbury got off to a winning start in the County League’s new T20 Blast with a five-wicket victory at Painswick.

The home side reached 123-7 which Sodbury overhauled in 14.1 overs.