PRINCE William knocked back liqueurs yesterday and joked that photographers were trying to get him drunk.

Tasting three glasses of two different liqueurs, the student prince, who is 21 tomorrow, was visiting a Welsh Food Fair in Anglesey, North Wales, with his father.

William had evidently been told the story of when his father was a schoolboy and ordered a glass of cherry brandy in a pub.

He said: "Look Pops, they've got cherry brandy."

An amused Prince of Wales raised his eyebrows and replied: "Don't believe everything they tell you."

Carol Jones, of Condessa, maker of liqueurs in Llanfaethlu, Anglesey, said: "We offered Charles the cherry brandy, but he said he'd better not have that and tried the apricot brandy instead."

More drinks were on the way when William sampled a real ale named Amnesia.

"It does exactly what it says on the bottle," Martyn Lewis, of the Isle of Anglesey Brewery, told William.

"I don't normally do real ale, I like cider, but this is good," the prince replied.

William and Charles were given a warm welcome by a 40-strong Welsh choir of children from the Theatr Ieuenctid Mon, who sang Happy Birthday to William in English and Welsh.

The prince blew out 21 candles on an iced cake with Happy Birthday William (Penblwydd Hapus William) written in Welsh.

Angharad Williams, 17, who has just finished her AS-level exams at Llangefni School, Anglesey, asked William if he was learning Welsh.

"If he is teaching himself Swahili, then learning Welsh should be a piece of cake," she said