YORK'S visit to Scarborough resulted in a 20-12 victory for the Seasiders who earned clear leadership of Yorkshire One.

They merited their success with a three-try golden spell of attacking rugby in the closing 20 minutes of the first half.

The period had been dominated by York, who had the chance to take the lead but Craig Ventress missed a penalty opportunity.

Scarborough were reliant on the excellent left boot of Kiwi fly-half Marcus Edwards - brother of recent York Wasps RL signing Peter - to clear the danger zone. Increasingly, Edwards was able to show that his hands were just as accomplished as his feet.

His swift transfers, both long and short, had his centres running at pace on to the ball, while, in sharp contrast, York's efforts were laboured.

Midway through the half, Scarborough scrum-half Jim Scarth kicked into the York 22 and, as Scarborough regained possession, Edwards worked the ball to the left which created the space for him to float a superb long pass out to the right for winger Ian Atkinson to score in the corner.

York were making repeated handling errors which Edwards punished with kicks into the York half. He then sent winger Andy Holloway scorching down the left only to be stopped by a good tackle by Stu Davies.

But the ball was worked out to number eight Shaun Fearn, who disrupted the York defence before centre Colin Holdsworth strode through some shoddy tackling to score near the posts for Edwards to add the conversion.

At 12-0 York were beginning to look punchless, so easy were Scarborough giving them the runaround.

Worse was to follow close on half-time when burly prop Tony Fish burst away and his kick ahead just went dead. But this established the position for another Edwards-inspired handling move which saw Holloway tackled on the left but the ball spun out right for Atkinson to take his second try.

Scarborough continued in much the same vein after the interval.

They demonstrated that, however vital a cog is Edwards, their pack could also plays its role as York were bested in the tight and, surprisingly, the lineout where their elaborations did not serve them well.

Holloway went close after 15 minutes but York began to play better in the final quarter. They eliminated mistakes and improved the fluency of their handling. As a result, they enjoyed increased territorial advantage and, in their drive to redress the 17 points deficit, they spurned a couple of relatively easy penalty opportunities.

This tactic paid off when, after a series of burst with number eight Lee Denham to the fore, York finally scored when centre Sean Bass burst through a tackle 20 metres out on the right and scored a try which Ventress could not convert.

Holloway led Scarborough back and Edwards kicked a penalty when York were harshly adjudged to have knocked on deliberately.

At 20-5 York faced a three-score deficit but in the last five minutes Bass gave his side hope when he shook off a tackle to score near the posts to enable Ventress to convert with help from the left upright.

However, there was insufficient time for York to press home their growing advantage and Boro were worthy victors and will feel reassured after their surprise defeat last week by lowly Beverley.

West Park, Bramhope similarly demonstrated on Saturday, in drawing with then co-leaders Sheffield Tigers, that the leading teams are not invincible.

Updated: 12:31 Monday, October 29, 2001