All eyes were on York Wasps yesterday as the Challenge Cup bandwagon rolled into town.

Their third round tie against amateurs Oulton Raiders had been touted as one of the potential shocks of the day and more media than usual gathered at Huntington Stadium waiting for Lee Crooks' men to slip up.

National Conference League division one champions Oulton were flying high in the premier division and had the backing of 500 travelling fans, while the under pressure Wasps had not won all season, had not played for three weeks and had a much-changed side on view.

Even so, Wasps coach Lee Crooks had said all along that there was no banana skin lying in wait, stating that the class and professionalism in the Wasps ranks would see them through.

The Wasps did not record a massive victory like some of their contemporaries in the Northern Ford Premiership, but after hitting Oulton with a triple whammy in the run-up to half-time and then cutting short a second-half fightback, they were able to play out the last half-hour without suffering undue trouble.

Crooks expected Oulton to come out with all guns blazing, and that they did as they put the Wasps on the back foot from the off.

Gareth Oulton kicked the Wasps ahead on eight minutes after Stephen Jakeman was penalised for holding down Paddy Handley, but the visitors stormed back with confidence.

They took a deserved lead six minutes later as Neil Bradbrook fed Gary Robb on the right to go over in the corner, and for the opening quarter of the match, it was hard to tell who were the professional side.

However, the Wasps had a bit too much in their locker for their visitors to cope with and proved it with a blistering nine-minute spell before half-time in which scrum-half Gareth Stephens was instrumental.

Firstly, he and stand-off Paddy Handley combined to set up powerful centre Gareth Lloyd - who was always a danger with the ball in his hands - to charge over down the left to retake the lead for York on 28 minutes.

He then played a superb pass to Shaun Austerfield to explode through at full throttle and send a superb scoring pass back inside to Paddy Handley on 32 minutes.

Six minutes later, he played a bigger part in York's scintillating third try. He fed Hargrave on the burst and stayed in support to retake the ball and give the scoring pass to impressive full-back Rich Darling, who sprinted over for a superb debut try in his first rugby league game of the season.

Gareth Oulton's two conversions - he took on the departed Jamie Benn's kicking mantle with aplomb - gave York an 18-4 half-time lead.

That advantage seemed unassailable at the restart, but the Raiders had different ideas and again charged out of the blocks, closing the gap inside two minutes when Lee Hall fed Sasch Brook to make it 18-8.

Five minutes later, only a superb last-ditch tackle by Wasps sub Spencer Hargrave prevented another Raiders try, but he immediately turned from hero to villain as he interfered at the play the ball and was sin-binned. And in the next six tackles, Hall touched down in the left corner to close the gap further.

All thoughts of a comeback never materialised, though, as the Wasps took control of the game.

They snuffed out all of the Raiders' breaks and killed the game on the hour-mark when centre Chris Allen touched down, with Oulton converting to complete the scoring.

It had been a terrific cup tie, but the game then petered out as the Wasps, showing a fine professionalism, prevented the Raiders from mounting any sort of late pressure.

It gave the York club a much-needed victory.

Updated: 09:41 Monday, January 29, 2001