Supershare '98

In a twinkle-eyed confession, Graham Winship says that he deliberately did a lot of shopping at Iceland supermarket down the road from his home in Fulford Road, Fulford yesterday, Thursday, to push up his stock.

It may not have worked because Iceland dipped fractionally, "but think of how much it would have plummeted had I gone to Asda instead," says a happy Graham. "It was insider dealing at least in the sense that what I bought will end up inside me and my wife, Dianne."

Graham, 39, received £40 plus two shiny memento £5 coins from Supershare sponsors Walsh Lucas & Company, the independent financial advisers of Micklegate, York.

He provides technical support for the York College Design Unit while Dianne is a lecturer there.

Graham added: "I only filled out two entries so I'm thrilled to be the best of nearly 20,000 of them.

"Back in the 1980s when seemingly no-one could lose I used to have a flutter with stocks and shares. I would make £400 in a day with a single phone call and wondered why it was necessary to go to work at all! In the end we re-invested it in property."

Dianne said: "He has an instinct for it. He'll sniff out a bargain like a bull terrier."

His portfolio which proved the most valuable of the day was Iceland (£5,000), Abbey National (£500), Boots (£500) and Dewhirst (£4,000) and it generated £12,241.58. That is a comfortable £77.18 from his nearest rival and augurs well for a final scrap for that ultimate £2,000 first prize and £1,000 Framlington Fund second prize at competition's close at the end of the month.

That daily runner up was Barbara Grey, compliance project manager with the Great North Eastern Railway. At her home, Larkspur, Whitwell-on-the-Hill, she sighed: "Second again!

"In the first week I came second with one of my 25 entries and then I was swirled away with the financial tide out of the Top 100 and out of sight. But now I'm back and I'll keep entering right up until the last day because the market is so unpredictable."

And third is... well, who else but Dudley Williams, of Copmanthorpe? For days Dudley has claimed third as his very own, a kind of steady north star of Supershare. "Perhaps my pin is sharper than anyone else's," he quips.

What a shame for Paul Walton, 17 and his syndicate partner, Matthew Wilson, also 17 who celebrated two wins, but the hat-trick was not to be. Paul was ousted into fourth place. But he is also at sixth place and between them the two York Sixth Form College students have five entries in the top 50. "We'll be back in these final few days," says Paul.

So why are there so many new names in the Top 100? Well, for one thing, Next plummeted 170 pence - the biggest fall of any Supershare plc in the competition so far. Barrie Bluck, of Leeds stockbrokers Redmayne Bentley, said: "That was partly reflected in the way that the market finished down 62.2 to 5,905. At its nadir it was trading 117 down before recovering."

Other Supershare plcs which took big tumbles included Railtrack, down 37p to 996, General Accident, down 32p to 1449p and Cadbury's down 29p to 799p.

By the way, how will daily winner Graham spend his £50 winnings? "Ill blow it on some more shopping at Iceland to ensure it stays up there!"

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