A 113-YEAR-OLD poster advertising a fundraising night in aid of the team that would become Brighton and Hove Albion is up for auction.

The poster for a variety night at the Empire Theatre in New Road, Brighton, was raising cash for the town’s Brighton and Hove Rangers football team.

Rangers were a team formed in 1900 following the demise of the professional side Brighton United, which played most friendly fixtures at Home Farm in Withdean – now known as Surrenden Field.

When Rangers themselves folded, the team now known as Brighton and Hove Albion formed in 1901 and took over the mantle.

The piece of football memorabilia has been owned by Gerry Schuller, 83, of Whitehawk Hill Road, Brighton, since the early 1990s. Mr Schuller rescued it from a skip when the Bath Arms pub in The Lanes was being refitted.

The poster is soon set to change hands however when it is put up for sale at Gorringes Auction House in Lewes on Wednesday with a guide price of £300.

Mr Schuller said: “I had an offer from someone to buy it but being a follower of theatre I offered it to him on a temporary loan basis. In the summer 2003 the poster was given a colour photo on the face of the Albion fanzine magazine.”

The lucky winning bidder of the framed 37in x 26.5in poster will be determined at Gorringes Auction Galleries at 15 North Street, Lewes, at 10am on December 3.