February 23, 2001 9:24: A BUSINESSMAN swept up in the excitement of Wycombe Wanderers' FA Cup run has pledged £3,000 of his own money to help beam live pictures of their quarter-final at Leicester City back to the ticketless thousands in Bucks.

Book shop owner John Rivett says he will stump up the cash if other fans or businesses help towards the £15,000 cost of setting up giant screens at Adams Park to relay live pictures of the big match.

Wanderers, who beat First Division Wimbledon in a thrilling penalty shoot-out to reach the last eight for the first time in their history, have only been allocated 3,200 tickets for the match at Leicester on March 10.

Those tickets are expected to swallowed up by the club's 2,750 season ticket holders and 350 league line members when the club announce how they are going to distribute tickets later this afternoon.

Mr Rivett, who runs The Book Shop in Amersham and Princes Risborough, said: "It is such a shame that so many people won't be able to go to the big match.

"I want to help do something for them because this is an historic match that the whole town should be able to see.

"I'm so excited about what Wycombe Wanderers are doing in the cup. I'm going to put £3,000 in to try and help bring pictures back to Adams Park.

"I think a lot of business will want to dig in as well to help all those people who can't get tickets."

Wanderers directors are keen on the idea which would be non profit making and will discuss the feasibilty of it at this afternoon's board meeting.

Blues chairman Ivor Beeks said: "We'd love to do it for the supporters. We know there are going to be so many of them who won't get tickets for the match.

"If we could get the big screens here we could have our own special cup tie atmosphere here for them at Adams Park."

Leicester's ground is one of the smallest in the Premiership and they have allocated Wycombe the regulation 15 per cent. But that is nowhere near enough to satisfy demand as cup fever sweeps across Bucks.

Mr Beeks said: "We could have taken 7,000 fans up there if we had the tickets."

The BFP is working with Wanderers to try and get the scheme off the ground. The idea is that fans will then pay around £5 to watch the match on the screens at the ground.

Businesses interested in sponsoring the scheme should contact the Dave Peters on 01494 755098

Dave Peters