IT is could be the greatest pub crawl ever assembled.

Fourteen of the best licensed premises in Britain's best pub city serving scores of the best bitters... who could ask for more?

Well, you can have more, you greedy beggars. How about a free T-shirt too?

Yup, it's Ale Trail time again - the event that puts the drink in the York Festival Of Food and Drink.

If you plan on visiting all 14 pubs on the ale trail during the festival - and we think you should - then collect a card from the Maltings. Get it stamped in each of them and take it back to the Molly-olly-altings and a limited edition, 100 per cent cotton T-shirt can be yours*.

This is the fourth year of the ale trail, the brainchild of Maltings' Mr Big, Shaun Collinge.

"Because there are so many decent drinking houses in York, I thought it would be a good way to represent pubs as a whole in the York Festival Of Food And Drink," said Shaun.

"It's a random selection of real ale pubs. The only thing they have got in common is they all sell real ale. Each place has its own character."

People come from miles around to take part. Last year, the first ale trailer to hand in a completed card and claim a T-shirt did so at 6pm on the festival's opening day. "The only reason they were delayed was because the Swan and Golden Ball didn't open until 4pm," commented Shaun.

With sponsorship from both the Black Sheep and York Breweries, the ale trail is fast developing as the festival fringe.

Two other events are now timed to coincide with the ale trail.

Landlord Jack Merry is back with his pork pie challenge. For £4, you can become a judge of up to ten halves of hand-crafted pies.

The event kicks off in the Tap & Spile, Monkgate, next Saturday at 3pm. "Then the great debate begins," says Jack. "Meat, jelly or pastry?"

What's his favourite bit? "I am a pig. I like the lot."

Meanwhile, over at the Golden Ball, Cromwell Road, Dave "Fozzie" Foster and his wife Linda are organising a beer festival.

It runs from 4pm next Friday to close of play on Sunday. There is also a barbecue planned for the Sunday.

Twenty extra beers will be racked up, many from local breweries, although one may have travelled all the way from Cornwall.

Here is a complete list of those pubs taking part in the Festival Ale Trail:

The Maltings, Tanners Moat: voted Cask Ale Pub of Britain. Seven quality ales always available

Minster Inn, Marygate: a traditional Edwardian alehouse serving top beer

The Three Legged Mare (or Wonkey Donkey), High Petergate: five York Brewery beers, two guests and ten Belgians (beer that is)

Royal Oak, Goodramgate: 20 years of inclusion in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide

Golden Slipper, Goodramgate: refurbished traditional pub offering five quality ales

Tap & Spile, Monkgate: ever-changing range of cask ales, scrumpy cider and fruit wines - plus those pies

Last Drop Inn: York Brewery's first pub, and a beer connoisseur's heaven

Blue Bell, Fossgate: the smallest and oldest untouched interior in York. Serving Green-King Abbot Ale, Pedigree, Strongarm Ruby Red, John Smith's and a guest

Rook and Gaskill, Lawrence Street: the latest York Brewery pub with largest selection of cask ales in York

Phoenix, George Street: warm welcome and rotating guest ales

The Swan, Clementhorpe: beer garden, a selection of cask ales, friendly staff, groovy tunes

Golden Ball, Cromwell Road: York's best kept secret, with five cask ales, plus 20 for the beer festival

The Ackhorne, St Martins Lane: an oasis off Micklegate

York Brewery, Toft Green: beer brewed using traditional methods; daily tours available

Incidentally the launch of Rooster's YPA, or Yorkshire Pale Ale, advertised as taking place at the Maltings this weekend, is not now happening. YPA has already been selling well for days at the pub.

*While stocks last. One free T-shirt per person only. Ale trail T-shirts can go down as well as up

Updated: 08:56 Saturday, September 04, 2004