Welsh lamb promotion aims to give a lesson in roasting to Beefy and Lamby

The Diary enjoys its cricket, particularly when England are winning, and is on tenterhooks awaiting the start of the Ashes series down under.

Like many sports fans, it is also somewhat superstitious. For example, England’s success in the last clash with Australia is almost entirely due to the birth of a boy by the name of Orson who lives near the Oval – his arrival came between the first and second tests, and heralded a dramatic reversal of fortune for Vaughan’s boys.

In a similarly superstitious vein, the Diary is worried by the news that two of England’s finest cricketers are now facing competition in the marketing stakes.

While Beefy and Lamby have reigned supreme in the world of meat advertising for some time – pottering around in their suburban kitchen, inexplicably dressed in full batting gear and cracking cricket related gags – things are now hotting up. Beefy and Lamby are facing a barrage of bouncers from the Welsh, as this month Welsh beef and lamb TV ads will hit our screens, and the sledging has already begun.

A spokesman for Golley Slater, the agency behind the Welsh campaign, says slyly: “We felt a more upmarket execution was appropriate, as opposed to a personality campaign that perhaps detracts from the actual meat.”

Beefy and Lamby’s response could set the tone for what promises to be a punishing winter for England’s cricketers past and present, and someone could be left with the taste of ashes in their mouth.