TRIBUTES have poured in from far and wide this week, paying respects to Dave "Ding Dong Do" Higson, who died suddenly on Tuesday.

Sam Allardyce and Phil Brown, on behalf of the current squad, John McGinlay, currently in America, who spoke for stars of the past, and national broadcasters, who knew him to be the Wanderers' number one fan, all agreed that the game will be all the poorer for his loss.

Famed for his down-to-earth style of commentating in the early days of match videos, Dave Higson was "The Voice of Burnden Park".

There is not a self-respecting Whites fan who does not have a tape from the Eighties and Nineties featuring Dave.

John Motson was never under any threat but the BBC stalwart could never captured the mood of Bolton fans when their team came from behind to beat Torquay 4-1 to win the Sherpa Van Trophy in 1989, or when Bruce Rioch's team beat Reading in the 1995 Play-off Final to win promotion to the Premiership for the first time.

That was his finest hour, but he never got to commentate on Wanderers in the top flight. He became a victim of the club's success when Sky TV demanded Wanderers employ a "more professional" video team.

The Voice of Burnden Park was silenced.

Dave Higson was crestfallen. He was never prententious or precious, quite the opposite, but he was part of the Road Runner Productions team that helped the club sell 30,000 videos in eight years and believed he gave Wanderers fans what they wanted - local flavour.

"I know I have a certain style of commentating," he said, "but I'm not talking to a southern audience. I'm talking to a Bolton audience."

Ironically, as his fame spread with regular appearances on BBC TV's Fantasy Football show, Sky turned to him to champion the Wanderers' cause on their Fan Zone programme.

But it would take more than TV fame to stop him watching the Whites. In May 2001 he was offered the chance to be the Wanderers' celebrity fan in Sky's coverage of the Division One Play-off Final against Preston. But he declined, preferring to play his familiar role as a steward on one of the official Travel Club coaches.

Cult status always amused Ding-Dong Dave. When he was recruited to do a voice-over for a national advertising campaign for the insurance company, Endsleigh, he said: "It's a strange feeling being in big demand. People keep asking me if I want a fee but I don't know what to say.

"I just ask for a couple of Cup Final tickets."