THE cup of good cheer nearly ran dry at a vital time of year for a former York pub regular, when thirsty thieves grabbed his favourite tipple from right outside his home.

But brewery bosses from the city stepped in to ensure the festive period remained festive, despite the efforts of the beer snatchers.

The story involves one Peter Gutfreund, a 38-year-old from London, who was once a regular in York hostelries The Maltings, in Tanners Moat, and The Five Lions, in Walmgate, when he worked for the Scottish & Newcastle and Whitbread breweries.

He was back in York for a friend's wedding last month, and decided to kill two birds with one stone by stocking up on his favourite libation, having saved up his cash to buy a crate of York Brewery's Yorkshire Terrier real ale.

But when he returned home to the capital the thieves struck, seizing the bottles as he left them on his garden wall while he was unloading his car.

So it looked like being a dry and unhappy Christmas - until bosses at York Brewery heard of his plight.

They quickly dispatched a complimentary replacement crate to Mr Gutfreund - hundreds of miles outside their delivery area - to make sure he didn't go thirsty over the festive period.

Peter said: "It was a fantastic surprise to have a crate of ale delivered. It really makes up for losing the beer I had looked forward to getting.

"Thanks to my wife, Viv, and York Brewery for arranging this Christmas treat. You don't usually get beers like this down in London."

York Brewery sales manager Barbara Vincent said: "We were disappointed that the beer was stolen, but we were pleased that he thought quite a lot of our beer and was pretty upset about it.

"We are always eager to try to help our customers. It is our product and we believe in it and we want it to get around the country."

YOU know how it is at this time of year. Sooner or later you're going to put the wrong date on a cheque or something. Usually it's because you forget that it's now 2006, and slip back in time to 2005.

But workers at City of York Council have found an ingenious way round this problem, as we discovered from an official notice which arrived at the Evening Press office this week.

The note kindly invited the media to attend an event, which, it said, was taking place on "December 6 January", which is one way of having your cake and eating it.

Presumably it actually meant tomorrow, which is January 6 - either that or it was very late. Put it down to the first day back at work after the long festive hols.

Updated: 09:05 Thursday, January 05, 2006