EVERYONE has heard of happy hour, but now a North Yorkshire pub has launched an alternative – unhappy hour.

Used to locals coming to offload after a tough week, landlord of the Buck Inn, at Wrelton, near Pickering, Andy Smith decided to add an element of competition to punter’s tales of woe.

Every Friday night between 5pm and 7pm, Mr Smith is offering a complimentary half of bitter to the person he deems to be the champion of unhappy hour.

He said he also had plans to sell “I’m BuckInn Miserable” T-shirts alongside the promotion.

Mr Smith said: “It’s a bit of humour. The ambience in this pub is fun, you get people talking across tourists and locals and we’ve got some characters.

“As the person behind the bar you have to be happy, you are an ear when people come in to have a natter. It’s an open pub so everyone joins in. I thought, let’s see who has had the most miserable week.

“The idea has been well received. We have had nearly 1,000 hits on the website in a few weeks.”

Mr Smith, who took over the Wrelton pub in October, said he had been delighted by the community spirit there. He said: “The pub is well supported by locals. We have a lot of tourists, but through the winter the locals really did support the pub.”

According to the pub’s website, other promotions and clubs at the Buck Inn include tractor night – a “weekly convention of the tractor club where members discuss tractors, tractor accessories, swap magazines and stories” as well as whippet racing.