FOOTBALL supporters young and old have the chance to get to grips with stacks of footie memorabilia.
Talbot superfan, John Holroyd has been raising cash for the regeneration of Beechwood Park for more than three years by selling football memorabilia at a programme and memorabilia fair.
The next fair is in the Social Club at Beechwood, on Sunday, November 13 from 10.30am until 1pm.
As well as eBay and the club forum, John started selling individual items on other forums and the money soon started coming in.
He said: “We got a really nice donation from Talbot fan Charlie Richmond, the ex-SPL and UEFA referee, of pennants, scarves and badges that he’d accumulated Europe wide and they went very well. We had one large donation from southern Ireland, and a guy who’d just been made redundant in London and had never heard of us, but saw my request online for donations and sent 20 huge parcels up from London that contained some 4,000 to 5,000 programmes. All this was paid for from his redundancy cheque”.
John is still taken aback at just how much stuff is still being given to the cause, and admits his wife audibly moans when he comes home from most home games with bags of stuff to look through and get ready for sale.
The club have let him have his own hut for the items.
He added: “We do get fans coming through occasionally now just because they know we have this facility. Last season we had a couple of Japanese fans who were students in Glasgow who latched onto the club and they always headed to the shop first thing every game.”
The club have hosted an annual programme and memorabilia fair for the last two seasons.
John said: “When I first moved to Scotland in 1991 there were fairs in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, now there’s us. We keep stall rentals low, so it’s not a huge outlay to the guys to come. Some of them share a table, and petrol costs, and stall rental goes straight to the regeneration funds. We have a regular clientele, not huge, but they do spend well given we’re the only Scottish fair, and everyone goes away happy.”
The items on sale vary enormously, and it’s not just Talbot stuff on sale, far from it. One of the stallholders specialises in Rangers items, and runs his own Rangers collectors forum with a huge amount of members, whilst another specialises in old Hearts items, another in Third Lanark.
As well as the the stalls at this years fair, John will have the Programme and Memorabilia Hut open.
He added: “We will have anything and everything in there on the day. Programmes, badges, scarves, pennants, tickets, a veritable library of football books, signed shirts etc. We’re hoping for a good turn out as it’s an international weekend and there’s no other football attractions to compete with on the day.” 
So far John has raised £8,500 through fans donating their collections to the cause.
He said: “It’s the ultimate in recycling as far as football goes, the fans donate their items and get something tangible in the form of ground improvements in return. It’s a win-win situation”.
Entrance to the event is free.