AMONG the palms and golden beaches of The Gambia there's an increasingly common sight greeting tourists - Blackburn Rovers shirts!

The famous blue and white halves are becoming the unofficial uniform of beach sellers, thanks to Ian Wiggins, who got fed up of seeing them all wear rivals' kits.

Over the past eight years, Ian, of Oakdale in Blackburn, and his family have been regular visitors to the West African country and on each occasion they taken some Blackburn Rovers memorabilia over.

Ewood season ticket holder Ian has just returned having kitted out an entire village football team - with the football strip worn by Blackburn Rovers Ladies team last season.

Ian, who works as an ultrasonic tester on railway lines, said: "Last year when we went, Rovers kindly gave me some old shirts which I took over.

"All the beach traders seem to wear football shirts and I was fed up seeing them all in Manchester United kits.

"This time the club donated the strips worn by the ladies team last season.

"We were staying in a tiny village called Brufut which is well off the main tourist trail.

"We've got friendly with a man call Soloman who has been our guide.

"It's his home village. We asked him to get the kids to meet us on their pitch.

"I had visions of hundreds turning up so I told him we'd only got 13 shirts."

Ian has just returned from his most recent trip along with his wife Alyson and his cousin Wesley Jones, also of Oakdale.

He said: "When Wes and I went to hand out the shirts there were 15 lads.

"We got them together for a team picture and one was crying because he didn't get a shirt so I gave him some Rovers shorts.

"Then the other one who hadn't got a shirt started to cry so we gave him 100 dalasi, which is about £2, but represents a week's wage in Gambia, so everyone was happy.

"We've started to get them interested in Rovers and now they all support the club."

Ian is hoping to return to Gambia in November. He said: "I'm looking to see if I can ship out shirts because you can only take so many in your luggage.

"My mission is to get every beach seller in a Rovers shirt - that would be some sight."