DIARY exclusive: we have located two places to stay in York which have definitely not been booked by the Beckhams.

We first reported in March that the city was flooded again, this time with rumours that Posh and her man had arranged to stay here for Royal Ascot 2005. Among the venues suggested were Aldwark Manor, the Parsonage at Escrick and Middlethorpe Hall.

Aldwark is now the hottest tip, we reported yesterday, although a spokeswoman was only able to confirm that celebrities sometimes stay in hotels.

Hey, thanks. So we thought it was time to get something on the record.

First stop was the York Backpackers hostel in Micklegate House. No, confirms group bookings co-ordinator Brian Taylor, the Beckhams have not inquired as to room prices. Yet.

If they do, they would be told it is normally £13 a person per night. To book all 135 rooms - plenty of space for Victoria, her husband and any female friends - would normally cost £1,755.

But the bill might be three or four times that for Ascot week. Happily, a family room may still only come to £100 (about five times cheaper than a hotel). No TV, mind, and Posh would have to queue, towel over her arm, to use the shared bathroom.

On the plus side, you get a Continental breakfast and exclusive access to the bar, which stocks a wide range of foreign beers.

Brian says he would be delighted to host the Beckhams. But the Moorland House B&B in Fulford is less keen.

The Diary was told that the five-room guest house (prices start at £18) had received no word from the star couple.

Would they be welcome? "I don't think so," says the woman in charge, who declined to be named. "Can you imagine all the fuss?"

CONFUSION at BBC Radio York. After labelling as exclusive a story on Royal Ascot rents which the Evening Press had carried long ago, yesterday's Breakfast Show went on to discuss a survey of what defines Britain as a nation.

Presenter Anna Wallace was confused by the inclusion of Gainsborough. Why, she wondered, was a small town on the way to Skegness included?

It had to be gently pointed out that the reference was to Thomas Gainsborough the 18th century artist...

WHICH is more addictive: sugar or cigarettes?

We ask on behalf of John Robson of Dringthorpe Road, Dringhouses. He wrote in after we recounted the ordeal of Evening Press bigwig Bill Hearld.

Bill came within a cigarette paper of being fined for littering when he dropped a fag end down the drain at the York Community Pride launch last week.

Mr Robson writes: "On a related topic; I appeal to the oracles of 76-86 Walmgate to settle a friendly dispute between my daughter and myself.

"On March 10 - No Smoking Day - I made a pact that she would give up smoking and I would forfeit sugar in my tea. Since then I have endured non-sweetened tea. She claims it is much easier for me to break the habit of sweetening tea than for her to stop smoking.

"I dispute her opinion, because I have had sweet tea for about as many months as weeks she has been smoking. Your opinion would be valued."

Unfortunately, The Diary cannot locate a single oracle in our luxurious Walmgate offices. Can anyone else help?

ON this day 12 months ago, we reported: "Only a miracle will do it now... York City have only the slimmest mathematical chance of winning promotion." What a fickle mistress is football.

Write to: The Diary, Chris Titley, The Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN

Email diary@ycp.co.uk

Telephone (01904) 653051 ext 337

Updated: 09:54 Wednesday, April 28, 2004