Ski Freak

I know it’s closing the gate after the horse has bolted but you might want to consider using one of the many backup plugins after you sort this problem out.

Thanks for the suggestion but that does not cater for the dates of the posts being different.
The code below works, but this is ugly code as far as I am concerned.
I am open to suggestions for a better way of doing this.
First block:
<span class="date"><?php $postDate = the_date(); ?></span><br />
Second block:
<span class="date"><?php echo ($postDate == "") ? get_the_date(): the_date(); ?></span><br />

Thanks for the quick response…

I have tried, and failed, using get_the_date()
How would I use this in the code above?