YORK publican Craig Regan hadn't suffered much bad luck before.

Granted, a woman did die during a festive dance at one of the pubs he had worked in previously, which "spoiled Christmas". And he is a Leeds United fan.

Nothing chronic enough to suggest a curse, however.

But since becoming a licensee and getting his name above the door of the Spread Eagle, Walmgate, he has endured a run of poor fortune that would have seen lesser landlords throw in the bar towel.

Craig, who celebrated his 28th birthday last month, is not talking about the "constant ribbing that I look like Vernon Kay", the Channel 4 presenter.

This is far worse.

He took over the Spread last July, and worked every day and night striving to bring back the boozer's glory days. Finally in October he went on holiday to Greece - only to be robbed of £1,600 and his passport on his first morning.

Back in the pub, he was racking up the beers in the cellar when a barrel slipped from his grasp and broke two bones in his foot. Later he broke his hand in another barrel-wielding mishap.

All the hours he has devoted to the Spread then wrecked his love life: Craig and his girlfriend split at Christmas.

Next his pub door was "kicked in by the police". Craig is sure the raid was prompted by a malicious tip-off from someone he had barred from the pub. The police have not taken any further action against him.

Hoping for better things in the New Year he was... out of luck. Craig was viciously beaten by a violent customer in January, which landed him with a fractured skull, both cheekbones broken and a scar near one eye.

His latest injuries are a broken nose and toe from an accident running upstairs.

But is he despondent? Bizarrely not. "My luck is changing," he declares.

He has a new team of crack staff to take the strain off at work, and he has a master-plan. "I'm going to go out and find myself a new woman. I'm sure that she will break the jinx."

So if any single women are keen to meet York's Vernon Kay lookalike, get to the Spread. First aid training an advantage.

THOSE old romantics Jill Piggott and Pete Freeman, who wed at Monks Cross Asda on Saturday, have made headlines around the world.

"Married on the job," quipped the Melbourne Herald Sun in Australia, whereas the Sydney Morning Herald plumped for "Bagged at the check-out".

The New Zealand Herald also carried the story, as well as several US newspapers, including the Washington Times.

The Southeast Missourian carried its version of the report well above another cracking story: "Man with bad fake moustache robs bank".

Imagine what the coverage will be like for the first couple to get hitched at York Crematorium.

YOU have to award Steve Galloway points for honesty. Reacting yesterday to news that York's council tax rise was the third highest in the country, the Lib Dem council leader pointed out that: "For the last three years the increases have been lower than average."

Those rises, of course, were under Labour.

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: 09:51 Wednesday, March 03, 2004