LEDBURY continued their fine Midlands Three West (South) season by sentencing struggling local rivals Upton to another defeat.

The second-from-bottom Old Street hosts suffered a 10th league loss of the season from 14 fixtures as sixth-placed Ledbury edged home 10-7 to extend their winning run to five games.

Upton hope the RFU Midlands Senior Vase will provide a welcome distraction again on Saturday when they entertain Vipers in the semi-finals (2pm).

For the second week in a row, they took a losing bonus point but maybe should have claimed four from the derby dogfight.

Injury-hit Upton were without fly-half Ollie Cooke, winger Joe Ayres and scrum-half James Gammond, while Ledbury also had several players drop out.

The home side bossed the first 20 minutes and only a fine tackle from impressive Ledbury skipper Rob Anscomb at full-back denied them.

Upton earned an early penalty and opted for a shot at goal but the kick sailed wide.

However, Ledbury gained more possession with their scrum on top and were soon on the scoresheet through the only try of the match.

Fly-half Harry Bee chipped over the Upton back-line, gathered his own kick from a fortunate bounce and found Matt Hallett on the right wing.

Hallett beat the opposition winger and full-back to go over the whitewash before George Bennion converted.

Ledbury could have doubled the lead when a simple move from a scrum saw Anscomb tear through but Hallett could not gather his wide pass.

Upton put good phases together but levelled from a line-out when Chris Thomas took the ball 10 metres from the line and they rumbled over through a driving maul with Charlie Abbey touching down. Chris O’Neil converted.

However, maybe the turning point came with five minutes of the half left when O’Neil was sin-binned for stamping and Bennion kicked the penalty from in front of the posts.

The Ross Road outfit ended the first period on the front foot with strong running from the back three of Jamie Rayfield, Anscomb and Hallett.

Ledbury, with the wind behind their backs, dominated the territory in a pointless second period without ever really looking like scoring.

Anscomb tore through the backline with a good counter-attack but lack of support saw the ball get turned over before the Ledbury captain moved to the back row and Ali Park came on at full-back.

Park beat a few players but was not backed up by his team.

Ledbury’s Peter Dixon was sent to the sin-bin for not being 10 metres, which gave relegation-threatened Upton hope.

They had defended well and conjured two or three late half-chances to win but could not find the killer touch with Ledbury’s man-of-the-match Dan Hicks putting in a key tackle.

Ledbury entertain second-placed Bedworth in the league on Saturday, January 31.