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THIS MUST BE ROTTERDAM, OR ANYWHERE

Liverpool Or Rome...

Glorious Gretna...oh yes, the 125 scarf milestone has now been surpassed, and thanks to you, friends, family and fans of other clubs, you have made it possible for us to achieve over 125 football scarves.

Many collect football memorabilia, from shirts to pin badges, from caps to photos. I read about one bloke who has a collection of over 1,500 mugs and cups from different clubs and a bloke from North Wales who bought 5, (yes, count them...FIVE) Wimbledon FC shirts the season before they changed to MK Dons, so this collection might not be unique, nor very interesting to most, but to us, managing to get 125 scarves is something to be proud of and has been rather expensive too.

So, our thanks go out to Amanda Bradshaw, who helped us cross the 125th threshold with her donation of the Gretna FC scarf, heres to 125 more...(gulp) 

Of course, as always, if you have a spare random club or international scarf hanging about the house, being used as a chamois leather or wrapped tightly around the neck of an effigy of Urs Meier, then drop me a line at county4life@hotmail.co.uk and I'm sure we'll give it a good home...!

After finally organising the scarves into some sort of working document, I realised I could have saved some money. I have accidentally duplicated some scarves; 3 x County, 2 x Wales, 2 x Oldham, 2 x Deportivo La Coruna, 2 x Liverpool, 2 x Man United (spit) and 2 x Tottenham Hotspur scarves, so swaps will be considered.

So, here goes and thank you very much...!

A huge majority of the collection will be British clubs, mainly due to the fact that at every away game, we seem to pop into the club shop and buy one. Still a little bit annoyed with Mansfield Town, where twice we couldn't get a scarf...!

The scarf with the most bizarre story is that the Watford scarf was kindly donated from a bloke from a Football MessageBoard, only he had to travel to Norway to collect the scarf from a Football-based bar in order to donate it to the collection.

Well done that man! The first non-County addition to the collection was Bolton scarf, and the rest, as they say, is history...!

The full list of British scarves is as follows (in alphabetical order) 

ACCRINGTON STANLEY - Thanks to an Oldham fan who travelled in the JPT...! 

AFC TELFORD UNITED - from a friend in Wellington - thanks Sarah!

ALTRINCHAM - Found in a pub in Alty

ARSENAL

ASTON VILLA

BARNET

BARNSLEY

BLACKBURN ROVERS - From an olde worlde sports shop in Bury!

BLACKPOOL

BOLTON WANDERERS

BOSTON UNITED

BRADFORD CITY

BRISTOL ROVERS - Thanks Neil Sayle

BURNLEY

BURY

CARLISLE UNITED

CHARLTON ATHLETIC

CHELSEA

CHESTER CITY  

CHESTERFIELD

CREWE ALEXANDRA

CRYSTAL PALACE

DARLINGTON

DERBY COUNTY - Car boot special!

DONCASTER ROVERS - From an Oldham fan who travelled to Belle Vue

EVERTON

FULHAM

GLASGOW CELTIC

GLASGOW RANGERS

GRETNA - A landmark 125th in the collection. Thank you very much Mandy Bradshaw...!

GRIMSBY TOWN - Again, thanks Neil!

HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN

HEREFORD UNITED

HIBERNIAN - Is green and white, but all it had to say it was a Hibs scarf was the tag it came on - thanks to Dave Murdoch 

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN

HULL CITY - Kindly donated by a Hull fan who stupidly thought it was for a charity auction!

INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE - From County fan Gavin McGregor...many thanks!

IPSWICH TOWN - another car booter!

LEEDS UNITED

LEICESTER CITY

LEYTON ORIENT

LINCOLN CITY

LIVERPOOL X 2

MACCLESFIELD TOWN

MANCHESTER CITY

MANCHESTER UNITED X 2

MILLWALL

MILTON KEYNES DONS

MORECAMBE

NEWCASTLE UNITED

NORTHAMPTON TOWN

NORWICH CITY

NOTTS COUNTY

OLDHAM ATHLETIC X 2 - Two of these, swaps anyone?

PETERBOROUGH UNITED

PRESTON NORTH END

PORT VALE

QUEENS PARK RANGERS

ROCHDALE - Finally - At The 3rd Time Of Trying!

ROTHERHAM UNITED

SHEFFIELD UNITED

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY

SHREWSBURY TOWN

STOCKPORT COUNTY X 3

SOUTHAMPTON

SUNDERLAND

SWINDON TOWN

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR X 2 - Two of these, anyone wanna swap?

TRANMERE ROVERS

TORQUAY UNITED

WALSALL

WATFORD - From a Football Themed pub in Norway!

WEST BROMWICH ALBION

WEST HAM UNITED

WIGAN ATHLETIC

WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS - From a bloke we met in Gran Canaria!  

WREXHAM

WYCOMBE WANDERERS - From Russ at www.chairboysforever.co.uk

To be honest you'd be very surprised what people sell on car boots, market stalls and the like, and it has helped a little bit with England's games being around the country, few have been picked up at Old Trafford - (spit), St James' Park and the like, and some have been swapped with County memorabilia at France 98, Portugal 2004 and whilst on holiday.   

AUSTRALIA - Outside Old Trafford Cricket Ground when the Ashes were on!

BELGIUM

BRAZIL - BRASIL

CROATIA - HRVATSKA - From a market stall in Dubrovnik...!

ENGLAND

FRANCE

GERMANY - DEUTSCHLAND

GREECE - HELLAS

HOLLAND

IRELAND

ITALY - ITALIA

NORTHERN IRELAND - From a pissed up Irishman at the qualifier at Old Trafford...!

POLAND - POLSKA

PORTUGAL - From Euro 2004

SCOTLAND

SPAIN - ESPANA

SWEDEN - SVERIGE

USA

WALES X 2 - One from a Welsh Tourist Board Shop In Rhyl. Twelve Effing Quid...! Robbing Buggers!

From market stalls in Benalmedena to those kind people who go on city breaks and bring me back scarves, they all contribute to the collection. When away myself I do like looking round the bizaars and market stalls to see what delights they have on offer, but the scarf with a special story is that of the Feyenoord scarf, which was donated by a very pleasant Dutch chap at Edgeley Park after he wanted a swap with a County scarf a few years back and thus became the first foreign club scarf in the collection.

I would have had a Dinamo Bucharest scarf from a very kind Evertonian at work, only after they were battered in Romania, he got absolutely mullered and left it in a pub!  

A.C. MILAN

A.E.K. ATHENS

AJAX AMSTERDAM - From a very friendly Dutch fella I met at Euro 2004

BARCELONA

BAYER LEVERKUSEN

BAYERN MUNICH - from a not-so-friendly German fella at Euro 2004...!

BENFICA - Thank you Matt Hopkins, a rare friendly Man Utd fan who went to United - Benfica.

CHARLEROI - From My Good friend Stephane in Belgium!

DEPORTIVO LA CORUNA x 2 - Thank you Laura McGregor...!

ESPANYOL - from a market stall in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote

FC FURTH - from my good friend Giorgio in Rome

FEYENOORD ROTTERDAM

INTERNAZIONALE

JUVENTUS

LAZIO - from Giorgio again

LILLE

MALAGA C.F.

OLYMPIC MARSEILLE

RCD MALLORCA

REAL MADRID

SPARTA PRAGUE - SPARTA PRAHA

TOULOUSE - Thanks to Simon and Mandy! 99p from a Charity shop in Fleetwood!

VALENCIA

"Specials" and "Halved" scarves, to be honest are not worth much to me and also as they are often made for the day / night of the match and never again to be worn, that have no real interest apart from the keen collector of halved scarves (which I am not one). Anyway, at the moment we only have three, and I'd really like to keep it that way especially as they all have a M*nch*st*r Un*t*d theme...

MANCHESTER UNITED / BAYER LEVERKUSEN

MANCHESTER UNITED / DEPORTIVO LA CORUNA

RUUD VAN NISTLEROOY / HOLLAND

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Can you help our collection? Donations or swaps would be gladly recieved or even if you are going to another ground that I don't have, then I will pay you back (with a reciept of course), email me