The publication of the Tripe Marketing Board’s 2021 Diary has been delayed until 16 November 2020, following news from the printer that  problems with supplies of raw materials had been compounded by the effect of lockdown being reintroduced this week.

TMB chairman Sir Norman Wrassle said the delay was a blow to the board’s promotional attempts but that he had written to everyone who had already ordered a copy explaining the delay.

Speaking earlier today, Sir Norman said: “Those who pre-purchased the Diary before publication helped give us a rough idea of what demand was likely to be – it’s always tough to predict demand for tripe at the best of times, but after a five year gap in publication, guessing how our 2021 Diary would go down was always going to be difficult.

The TMB had always hoped to make the Diary as up-to-date as possible by including details of World Tripe Day celebrations on 24 October and the results of our controversial TripeDog 2020 contest, but had nevertheless expected to have taken delivery of stock of the Diary by now.

Sir Norman said the board had rejected a suggestion that they could issue a sticker making the Diary valid in 2022 as impractical.  “Every cloud has a silver lining – or, we say at the TMB, every cow has a stomach lining.  Technically, they’ve got four, of course, but it sounds better,” he said, adding that the TMB would re-introduce its pre-publication discount price for the Diary until the new publication date. It is again available at just £6.99 in the TMB’s online shop.

“I want to thank everyone for their patience as we have weathered these delays. It feels almost like a long-awaited baby – our 2021 Diary is set to be a little bigger and bouncier than our previous ones as there’s been so much happening to reflect on in the world of tripe over the past 12 months – but I also think it’s a going to be little bonnier and that people will like it.  More importantly, I think their friends will like it, and their friends’ friends may very well admire it, too. We haven’t yet done enough research to know what their extended friendship network will think, I’m afraid,” Sir Norman said.