YORK'S 32-22 home victory in a friendly fixture against Leodiensians on Saturday gave them some recompense for their earlier NPI Cup defeat at the hands of the Leeds club.

But, for a long time, the visitors looked like using their wind advantage to put themselves out of the sight of their occasionally too accommodating hosts.

York were on early attack as they charged down two attempted clearances and wing Rob Karma almost exploited Mike Ford's kick ahead.

When the pace settled, Leo's fly-half began to exert territorial control with his boot and York were under more pressure. Leos handling was much slicker than York's and one smooth move saw the full back burst clear into space and York were on their own line where, following a line out maul, the Leos prop touched down for a converted try.

That was enhanced with a penalty by Leos' fly-half as York went offside.

Worse was to follow for York as a 60 metres downfield kick put the visitors back on the offensive. This was followed by a cross kick to the left where the winger touched down against a fairly casual York cover. The conversion took Leos 17 points clear after less than 20 minutes.

York continued to suffer a series of penalties, which is a seemingly weekly occurrence, suggesting that all the fault cannot be laid at the hands of a succession of misguided officials.

However, it did seem to sting them into a period of more positive play culminating in a neat reverse pass from Nick Ventress, replacing his older brother Craig at fly-half, which found Lee Denham on the burst and he ran clear from the 22 to score under the posts. Ford converted.

Within two minutes, Ventress was at the heart of the next score. He appeared to have shrugged off a high tackle five metres out and was about to touch down when the referee awarded a penalty. Scrum-half James Arkle took the tap and darted over to narrow the deficit to 17-12.

However, in the last few minutes of the half, Leos scored a scrambled unconverted try on the right after a good bout of passing and left York ten points adrift.

York opened the second half positively and their forwards began to develop excellent close passing moves which, ultimately, tired the rather heavy Leo's pack. This sort of dominance enabled Stu Davies, subbing for injured Russ Allerton, to break through the middle and score with Ford's conversion bouncing out off the posts.

A combination of Ventress using the wind and York's forward power kept York on the attack and, finally, Arkle broke clear to give wingman Ally Hurst a 20m run to the line

Leos' fly-half continued to keep his side in the game with his excellent generalship but York made certain of victory in the last ten minutes when an excellent forward drive at a five metre scrum saw No 8 Andy Kay pick up and crash over.

In the final minute Arkle fielded a poor clearance kick to put Denham away on the left. He fed inside to Sean Bass who touched down wide out for a try which Ventress could not convert.

Updated: 11:59 Monday, January 21, 2002