GIFTS AT YOUR BIRTHDAY don't come much better than a handwritten poem... from Barry Cryer that is.

This was one of the gifts given to Haslers for its 60th birthday.

Cryer (pictured) is famed for his writing skills on national treasures such as episodes of Morecambe and Wise as well as teaming up with John Cleese and several others on the Frost Report.

He had to summon up those creative juices to dish out his Ode to Haslers in which he wrote cracking works of art such as:"Sin in praise of the house of Hasler, I am no bard or rhyming dazzler."

Other lines include: "My knowledge of matters fiscal and financial, could hardly be described as substantial".

Cryer recited the poem at a Tower of London lunch to mark the firm's 60th year which was followed by unscrupulous amounts of drinking, TS understands.

Royal Bank of Scotland decided to play it safe instead of working up a poetic masterpiece, by presenting the firm with an engraved Tiffany bowl.

TS thinks the firm may have dodged a bullet there.