Lucy Bolton A Norwich City fan is £50,000 better off after his life-long collection of memorabilia was put up for auction.

Lucy Bolton

A Norwich City fan is £50,000 better off after his life-long collection of memorabilia was put up for auction.

David Davenport decided to sell his collection of more than 500 snippets of the Canaries' 105-year history in order to “downsize his life”.

Last week, the haul, which included programmes, yearbooks, postcards, medals and autographs, raised a staggering £50,000 at the Carrow Road auction.

Mr Davenport, a season ticket holder who has been a Canaries fan since he was a “wee tot” despite being born and bred in Manchester, said: “I said before that a low total would be about £35,000 and a reasonable one about £50,000, so this is pretty much what I expected.

“The sale was a game of two halves really. The first half of the day was very buoyant, but the second half seemed to die a death. “Quite a few of the older items did not get sold. Certain items from pre-war would not sell for any amount of money. Everything that did not sell will be sold at an auction in Leicester in about three weeks' time.”

The most expensive item was a League Cup Final 1st leg programme and ticket for Norwich's game against versus Rochdale in 1962, which sold for £740, snapped up by a telephone bidder.

The 63-year-old added: “There were another couple of interesting items that fetched good money. FA Cup run '59 programmes in a package with tickets went for £260, which was quite amazing.

“The UEFA Cup run programmes are generally bog standard but I put them together with my personal travel itinerary and it fetched £260.”

Mr Davenport, from Old Buckenham, who's still a season ticket holder, said the reason he was selling his collection was that he was downsizing his life and did not have time to look at his collection anymore.

The sale was organised by Tim Knight, of Alby-based Knights Auctioneers, who has also organised the sale of the leftovers at the Premier Travel Inn in Braunstone, Leicester on June 22.

Mr Knight said: “The auction went very well with over 80pc of lots sold. There was strong bidding for local derby programmes between Norwich and Ipswich Town over various seasons, the early Minute book made £350, the run of programmes from the UEFA Cup run £260, the League Cup Final, 1st leg programme versus Rochdale made £740, the 2nd leg £280.

“A programme from the Norwich City versus Corinthians, FA Cup 3rd round match, played at The Nest on January 12, 1929 made £270.”

Are you putting your lifelong collection up for auction? Contact David Bale on 01603 772427 or email david.bale2@archant.co.uk