The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 5 letter word LOCAL DERBY
I've seen this crossword clue in The Daily Telegraph
L
O
C
A
L
D
E
R
B
Y
More clues leading to the result LOCAL DERBY
- See Yorkshire river beside event in Sheffield, say
- Cold barely affected contest between neighbours
- Close match
- Fixing collar and evening dress, primarily before getting regional tie?
- Rivalry between neighbours at “The Brunswick Inn”?
- Slimmer’s cheese in regional contest
- Strange boy called Rodney beginning match between close rivals
- China used by pub meeting for Fulham and Chelsea perhaps
- Resident bowler in grudge match?
- Needle match shown in pub against City?
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "match between close rivals" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case match between close rivals = local derby.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.