WHAT a cliffhanger! The entries - more than 20,000 of them - are now in and we all await the announcement tomorrow of the final, ultimate Supershare winners, the ones who claim the £2,000 champion's prize and the £1,000 runner's up bonanza.

The market yesterday (Tuesday)threw up the last daily winner's prize of £50 from sponsors Walsh Lucas & Company, the independent financial advisers, of Micklegate, York.

And the see-sawing tussle at the top between Barbara Gray, 46, of Larkspur, Whitwell-on-the-Hill, and Graham Winship, 39, of Fulford Road, York, not only goes on but is nailbitingly close.

This time it's Graham's turn to lead the competition, pushing Barbara into second place but a mere sliver of £2.04 separates the value of their Supershare portfolios!

This is the second time that Graham has won the coveted daily winner's prize. Last Friday he was overhauled by Barbara. Now, after a second daily win, she has been beaten back again into second place.

Graham provides technical computer support for the York College of Further and Higher Education's design unit while his wife Dianne, is a lecturer there. Lots of staff and students are rooting for their ultimate victory.

He says: "Have you ever known anything so tense, so close? Of course all the major rivals at the top could be wiped out. There could be a plague on all our houses. I can't wait for it all to be over so that I can get some sleep! Gosh this competition is fantastic fun."

Barbara, says: "I'm just grateful to be second for the third time. I've been first twice. Now, maybe the fates will decree that I'm first for a third and final time. But even if I am wiped out I've had a good run. I can only wish luck and enjoyment to whoever wins tomorrow."

Graham's portfolio, which proved the most valuable of the day was Iceland (£5,000), Abbey National (£500), Boots (£500) and Dewhirst (£4,000). It turned his £10,000 fantasy investment money into £12,196.71. Barbara's portfolio value was £12,194.67.

Sadly, for the moment, the third place which Dudley Williams, 61, earned for no fewer than FIVE successive days, is no longer his. Dudley, of Copmanthorpe, slipped to fourth place with Geoff Jackson, 40 year-old BT engineer of Old Mill View, Sheriff Hutton as the new number three.

An extra twist of excitement comes with the observation from Barrie Bluck of stockbrokers Redmayne Bentley that yesterday a lot of the Supershare plcs who had taken hard knocks during March were now moving up again.

Cadbury's Schweppes, for instance, which moved out of the 800 zone and into the 700s was up 33p to 824 p.

Next, not long ago reaching a nadir of 520 was now 577p after a flurry of buying which left it 28p up.

Conversely, one of the best performers over the month turned out to be one of the day's biggest losers, down 22 p to 977.

The movement was detected, interpreted and acted upon by the last flurry of entrants who sought to take advantage of trends with new entries.

So who knows which way the economic wind blows. Market forces have a mind of their own. But could they favour you? Could you be our Supershare champion?

There is only one real way to find out - and that is to buy your copy of the Evening Press tomorrow.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.