York advanced their Powergen Durham and Northumberland division one promotion cause with a comfortable 35-3 victory at Hartlepool, who beat league leaders Percy Park only two weeks ago.

There was a strong wind blowing downfield and the match was scheduled for play on a junior pitch.

The York officials protested that the pitch didn't meet league requirements and the game was moved to the longer main pitch.

As the warm-ups ended, it was learnt that the referee had been involved in a car accident and, so, the match started 70 minutes late.

York elected to play up the slope and into the wind. They spent periods on defence but wisely chose to run, rather than kick, out of defence.

Their handling was an improvement on recent displays and they managed to move the ball wide. This avoided entanglement with a robust Hartlepool pack intent on wearing York down.

After 23 minutes, home scrum-half Pat Wilson found the posts to give his side the lead.

After half an hour York No 8 Ian Davies collected a stray kick behind his own line and charged up to the 22.

Scrum-half Graham Smith worked the blind-side with his fly-half Mike Ford to put right winger Mark McDaid into space and he raced 70 yards to the line. Tom Copeland could not convert.

Within minutes of the restart Smith started a move down the right and forwards Brad MacDonald and Grant Williams combined for centre Nick Ventress to send Sam Arkle over for a try.

The hosts tried to use their forward strength but a long Ventress kick put York on to the attack. Ford was obstructed pursuing a loose ball and Copeland kicked the penalty.

A shrewd Smith chip was chased by McDaid, who got the bounce to score wide out.

Right winger Rob Karma took over the last quarter with a hat-trick. First he latched on to a Ford kick and then, when a Copeland penalty hit the post, he swooped on the loose ball for a score.

Finally, York attacked down the right, then worked the ball left for Karma to clinch his three-timer.

Updated: 10:30 Monday, February 14, 2005