SWEDISH journalist Bengt Bilge is hoping his adopted team will be safe from the drop by the time he next visits Ewood Park for Rovers final game of the season against Nottingham Forest.

Bilge became a Rovers fan in the 1950s when he read about the goal scoring feats of the late Tommy Briggs.

Any striker who could crack in seven goals in one match - Briggs did against Bristol Rovers in February 1955 - was hero material as far as Bengt was concerned.

He stayed loyal to Rovers after his hero hung up his boots and has visited Ewood Park many times.

But Bengt, 70, who lives in Stockholm, is a worried man.

His next scheduled visit is Saturday, May 8 for the visit of Forest when Rovers may be battling for points to stay in the Premiership.

"I don't want to see them go down," said Bengt. "But I must be Rovers' keenest Swedish fan and I'll be there no matter what. They could do with a Tommy Briggs to keep them in the Premiership."

Bengt has a massive collection of Evening Telegraph Rovers match reports and is probably Scandinavia's leading authority on the team.

Most of them were sent on by John Vaughan, of Broadfield Road, Accrington, who runs the Record Exchange in Higher Church Street, Blackburn.

Bengt met John when he called in his shop and promptly paid the postage in advance for his cuttings.

"They keep me in touch between visits to Ewood," said Bengt who was a local referee in Stockholm between 1974 and 1993 and once managed a women's team which toured India, Indonesia and Mexico. *Tommy Briggs, who was signed fom Birmingham City in 1952, scored 140 goals for Rovers in less than 200 appearances. He died in 1984.

FORMER Rovers midfielder Craig Skinner joined York City from Wrexham for £20,000 this week.

ROVERS game against Middlesbrough at Ewood Park next Saturday is a category B game with tickets on open sale priced from £25 to £18 for adults and £10 for juniors and senior citizens.

ROVERS have re-arranged some of their remaining Pontins League Premier Division fixtures.

The reserves will now entertain Preston on Wednesday, April 7 and then visit Goodison Park to play Everton a week later on April 14. The game at Nottingham Forest reserves has been re-scheduled for Wednesday, April 28 at the City Ground. All games kick-off at 7.00pm.

LATEST Double Your Money club winner is W Nuttall of Ribchester with 363.

The Rovers Return prize of £1,030 goes to R Smith of Blackburn with 137859.

The autographed ball from last Saturday's match has been unclaimed by ticket 141770.

BLACKBURN'S Premiership clash at Arsenal on Tuesday, April 6 (kick-off 7.45) is an all-ticket affair.

All tickets are priced at £16 and are on open sale but will not be available on the day of the game.

Rovers fans will be housed in the Clock Stand behind one of the goals.

Tickets can be bought direct from the Ewood Park ticket office, by postal application with letter, cheque/credit-card number and SAE or by credit card application on FreePhone 0321 10 10 10.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.