It's a scarf that's been proudly held aloft by a former US president, a top TV comic and a best-selling novelist.

If medals were given for promoting a local football team, Bradford-based Royal Mail customer liaison manager Chris Higgins would surely take gold.

The 50-year-old has managed to get the likes of Bill Clinton, Jilly Cooper and Rory Bremner to smile for photographs clutching the colours of his beloved Bradford Park Avenue.

Lifelong supporter Mr Higgins, from Wibsey, began what has grown into an astonishing celebrity photo collection five years ago, when he decided to help raise the team's profile.

Gently collaring every star that came to town with his scarf, he scored his biggest success to date this year when he met Mr Clinton at the Yorkshire International Business Convention.

"He was very, very charming and nice and seemed to have a lot of time for Joe Public, despite being surrounded by security," he said.

"I think he was a bit bemused when I handed him the scarf but it was a credit to him that he went along with it for the picture.

"I've been doing this for five or six years now, both to promote the club and to show Bradford itself in a more positive light, and I must admit I get a real buzz out of it!"

Mr Higgins gained access to the former president, and to Sydney Olympics organiser Michael Knight, thanks to an unlikely connection with the convention organiser, Mike Firth.

Mr Firth is a former Bradford Park chairman and a fellow fan, so he was glad to open a few doors, and secure a photographer for his comrade in football at the Harrogate-based event.

Mr Higgins has seen the Wibsey-based club, which was formed in 1907, go through a series of dramatic changes during his five decades as a supporter.

In 1970 it crashed out of the football league and disbanded, only to reform in 1988 and, last year, fight its way back into the Unibond Premier Division.

He said: "My father was a fan before me, so it's a family tradition really.

"Collecting the celebrity photos is just a hobby, but it is helping with publicity and I usually try to get them to autograph a football too, which we sell off for the club.

"I got some of my first pictures in bookshops in Bradford, and now I just make sure I keep my eyes and ears open so I don't waste any opportunity to get another star with the scarf."

Other celebrities to have fallen foul of the Bradford Park charm include politician Roy Hattersley, writer Barbara Taylor Bradford, footballing legend Jimmy Greaves and entertainer Adam Faith.

Now the Bradford celebrity bagger is hoping to make a British golfing great, Lee Westwood, his next 'victim' when he visits the British Open this week.