What a super start for Supershare entrant Christine Tate who is once, twice, three times a £50 daily winner.

Christine, unemployed care assistant of Powell Street, Selby, once again donned the daily winner's bowler in the competition sponsored by Walsh Lucas & Co, the independent financial advisers of Micklegate, York - an event which by today has attracted approaching 5,000 readers' entries and counting.

She said: "I'm speechless. I'm spending £50 on treats for my grandchildren and keeping the remaining £100 towards a holiday. But the odds are probably against me staying ahead all the way to the £2,000 first prize or for that matter £1,000 second prize at the end of March"

Her portfolio, consisting of Safeway (£5,000), National Grid (£1,000), Storehouse (£2,000) and Yorkshire Group (£2,000) again stayed at the top of the top 100 even as yesterday's Stock Exchange continued its relentless fall.

After a 74 point loss on Wednesday, shares plummeted yesterday (Thursday) by as much as a further 104 points before rallying to 37.5 down at the close.

Once again it meant that Christine's total profits on her fantasy £10,000 investment dipped - this time by as much as £59.53 to £10,311.31. But then so did everyone else's!

Climbing into runner-up position is systems analyst Ian Fenning, of Sussex Road, Badger Hill, ousting bank manager Adam Bryan of Brownmore Road, Stamford Bridge, who slips back into sixth place.

Ironically, on the first day the number two slot belonged to Ian's wife, Sonja, who was overall victor in the 1992 Supershare competition. Between them, the Fennings now also occupy fourth, fifth and eighth places in the top ten.

In spite of the downward movement of shares, it is interesting to note that every one of the top 100 has made a profit on their fantasy £10,000. But more a Supershare victim than a participant so far is Robin Woods, a cheery Nestle Rowntree warehouseman of Bridge Road, Bishopthorpe, who turned a fantasy £10,000 stake into an equally fantastic £744.81 loss - putting himself on track for the ultimate booby prize. "I don't care what's the nature of my fame. I just enjoy playing the game," he said poetically.

But what goes down must go up in the topsy turvy world of high finance and so the advice is to buy! buy! buy! in the expectation of values returning to old or even record highs. But you hardly need advice to keep those entries coming.

Many of the thousands of entries received continue to be sent in multiples, as families, friends and neighbours enthusiastically rally to submit every combination they can think of in the four-firm portfolio they choose with £10,000 worth of fantasy investment cash from 32 listed Supershare companies.

Their choices rise and fall with the real life vagaries of the stock exchange. The ultimate winners will be declared after the last day, March 30.

Barrie Bluck of stockbrokers Redmayne Bentley makes what could be a telling point when he says: "Although the drop was marked, stores, in general were steadier, with Asda and Sainsbury's ending with a small plus on the day. In short there was a mixed bag of fortunes for each Supershare sector, but with stores definitely holding up against the trend."

Do you want to play Supershares? Are YOU in the Top 100 of Supershare entry values? Buy your Evening Press to find out or to enter.

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