Now it's three cheers for the grand 'old' Duke of York

When the regulars nursing their pints at the bar of the Duke of York were told to clear their unpaid bills and go away so the pub could have a refit to help it appeal to a more sophisticated clientele, the response was brief and bruising.

More than a dozen drinkers - as much part of the furniture at Sai Kung's oldest western pub as the darts board and the pool table - stormed out, leaving behind bar debts rumoured to run to thousands of dollars collectively.

The indignant regulars imposed an unofficial boycott which left the 16-year-old pub virtually deserted when it reopened three weeks later with new tables, a new wine-bar look, a new menu, no pool table and none of the old faces.

Now, five months after trying to rid the Duke of York of its spit and sawdust image, former landlords Mike and Una Wilkinson have given up and handed the keys to shareholder Cheung Man-lai.

Ms Cheung, at 20, is now one of Hong Kong's youngest landladies, and her business partners have promised to try to win back the old regulars by taking the Duke of York back to its roots.

The mutineers in turn have responded by putting around an e-mail appealing for an end to the boycott and saying that under its new management 'the 'old' Duke of York' can make a comeback.

Environmental consultant Dave Blair, 42, a regular at the pub for nine years, said: 'It was a good example of people power. We said we wouldn't go back until there were some changes and now there have been.'