York's visit to Alwoodley ended in exit from the Intermediate Cup at the hands of Leodiensians who won 16-12 in a tight second round encounter.

It was a disappointment for York who had built up a promising half time lead. However, they were unable to use the ball as creatively as Leos whose passing boasted fluency and expansiveness.

In the forwards, the sides were more evenly matched and the return of lock Dave Spanton gave York greater security of lineout ball than in recent weeks. The York pack also had many good moments.

Despite flashes of brilliance from the York outsides, Leos had the upper hand in open play with fly-half Dave Eddie distributing the ball well and kicking astutely. This enabled centre Matt Freer and full-back Jon Eagle to demonstrate their elusive running skills.

York attacked early and Stu Davies, at full-back, was almost through on the burst in the Leos 22 and better support could have produced a try.

After 25 minutes Eddie gave his side a three points lead with a well taken 25-metre drop goal.

In a surge down the right York scrum-half James Arkle cleared brilliantly up to his ten metres line.

From this position York centre Sean Bass made an electric burst to Leos' 22 where the ball was recycled left to Lee Dunham.

The ball was fed to Spanton, who signalled his return to first team rugby after 18 months' rest with a score. Mike Ford converted.

Within five minutes Bass was on the attack again, chipping deep into Leos 22 and forcing them to concede a lineout. Spanton secured the ball and York rolled 12 metres to the line where prop Andy Smith gained a touchdown. This time Ford could not convert.

With a 12-3 interval lead York were far from secure. Joe Brown was forced to bring off a great try-saving tackle out on the right, then under pressure York conceded an offside penalty converted by Eddie.

Arkle got York on the attack with a fine rolling kick into his opponents' 22 but they failed to consolidate and the ball was spun out to Eagle who, despite his 41 years, showed the class that sustained his top level career with Harlequins. He swerved and dummied his way to run the length of the field untouched enabling Eddie to convert and secure a 13-12 lead.

Within a few minutes another sweeping Leos' attack forced York to go offside and Eddie extended the lead to 16-12.

The last quarter was something of a stalemate as Leos used Eddie's boot to ensure territorial safety while York were not quite bold enough to steal victory.

Now they look forward to Saturday's home league derby against Pocklington brought forward to 1.30pm in view of England's Grand Slam international decider against Ireland later that afternoon.

Updated: 12:31 Monday, October 15, 2001