Supershare fever has gripped the readership of the Evening Press.

By now around 4,000 entries have poured into the Walmgate offices in York.

The exciting competition, sponsored by Walsh Lucas & Company, the independent financial advisers of Micklegate, York, allows you to invest a fantasy £10,000 on the stock market.

By plugging into the real-life ups and downs of the Stock Exchange, you can earn a genuine bonanza - £2,000 first prize, £1,000 for the runner up if your portfolio is valued the highest and second highest respectively at the end of the competition on March 30.

Meanwhile, to add spice to the rivalry, the best entrant of the top 100 published daily earns a £50 prize and so far there has been only one winner in it.

Christine Tate, unemployed care assistant of Powell Street, Selby has earned a second daily £50 prize for being top of the Supershare tree.

Her portfolio actually dropped in value by £68.22 by close of dealings last night (Wednesday) but then whose didn't? According to Barrie Bluck, stockbroker of Redmayne Bentley: "The whole stockmarket fell by 74 points in the UK, reflecting jitters in the homeware sector and the fall was broadly even."

Now Christine, married to unemployed builder Michael, says: "I can't believe it. It makes up for all our years of bad luck. Dare we hope for a hat-trick?"

Well, why not? Except that she has a bank manager on her back - Adam Bryan, of Brownmore Road, Stamford Bridge, manager of TSB Hull branch. One of his 60 entry forms soared into second place just £45.94 short of Christine's winning total of £10,370.84.

And then there is the real threat from the Fennings angling to be overall winners yet again, only of this year's Supershare.

As overall Evening Press Supershare champion in 1992, Sonja Fenning refuses to rest on her laurels. She and her husband, Ian, filled out 42 entry forms for the 1998 competition at their home in Sussex Road, Badger Hill and guess what?

They had no fewer than five successful entries in the top 10 yesterday - Sonja was actually runner-up to Christine. And with 18 in the top 100, it was a case of watch out, there's a Fenning about! Today they have 10 in the top 100 but are still challenging at third, fourth and ninth.

Ian, 34, a systems analyst, claims that his technique is "gut instinct." That raw intuition brought his wife victory which she celebrated with her colleagues at Tesco, in Tadcaster Road, York, where she worked at the time. She is now a library assistant at the University of York.

But it's early days yet. One twitch of the market could see a surge of new names enter the list of top values. So have a go and get your form(s) by buying your copies of the Evening Press. Over the next few weeks there is always the chance of success but if not, so what? As Mrs Alma Winship, of Fulford Road, York, says: "It's a wonderful bit of fun." Believe it, because Alma was reacting to the distinction today of having submitted the lowest value portfolio so far at £9,409.21.

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