Ashley Cowan will soon be lapping it up at Essex © Getty Images

Benefit events: yawnsome speeches from crusty old men blathering on through their beards – Get on with it, man! - while guests struggle to hold their eyes open. Right?

Well, not necessarily so in cheeky Essex where Ashley Cowan is being sponsored by a lap-dancing club, The Cave, who will put on so-called Cave Nights, involving pole dancing, beer and, um, cricket celebrities.

The club's communications manager Greg Lansdowne hastily justified how this sat with being a family club. "There are a variety of events in a benefit year," he said, "some of an adult nature and some for all the family. Ashley's Cave Nights will cater for the more mature end of the market."

"We all know sex sells," nudge-nudge-wink-winked a grinning Cowan, "and that's why we are having these nights." Ooh! Fancy.