Cobbold Stand season ticket holder Mark Tabor had the shock of his life last week when he received an unexpected phone call from the Club.

The caller was Town's Product Manager Alison Holman, telling Mark that his shirt design had been selected to be the first-team strip for 2005/06.

The shirt, designed by the Cambridge-based Blue and his Danish girlfriend Zanne Soele-Piper, received a whopping 43% of the public vote and will now go into production ahead of next season.

From nearly 4,000 entries, the selection panel - which included Chairman David Sheepshanks, Joe Royle, Jim Magilton, Sales and Marketing Director Andrew Goulborn, Alison and Neil Farrar from kit manufacturers ASD - created a short-list of just six strips and supporters were then asked to cast the deciding vote.

Mark with his original design

"I designed a few shirts along with my girlfriend and the panel didn't choose our favourite, but this was probably the simplest in terms of manufacture," says Mark. "Once we got into the top six we started to think `well why not'."

Mark, 35, who works at the Apple Store near Regent Street in London's west end was amazed to win the competition.

"I took off down the road in a Darren Bent-style goal celebration when the Club phoned," he laughs.

"It really hit me on my way home that next season we'll be walking down Portman Road and there will be hundreds of people wearing our shirt it's really freaky."

It's not just the fans that the shirt has proved popular with, either, as Alison Holman explains. "We took the shirt to the training ground last Thursday and the players absolutely loved it," she says.

"The whole asymmetric look is very trendy at the moment and this design obviously caught the imagination. It keeps the traditional Ipswich blue, but is also a bit more modern and different.

"Mark said the design was based on the centre circle, which is where the curve comes from."

Pre-ordering for the new strip begins from the Derby match on Saturday 2nd April 2005. Supporters putting their name down and paying will get the strip on May 7th, a week before it goes on general release.

Prices remain the same as this season: shirts £39.99 (adults sm-xxl) and £29.99 (children); shorts £19.99 and £14.99; socks £8.99 and £6.99.

"There is also a ladies fit, from size 8-18, at £39.99," says Alison.  "Around 25% of our season ticket holders are women so it makes sense to create a product just for them.

"Another area where our kits differ from a lot of clubs is that the stock available to supporters in the shop is exactly the same as the players wear on the pitch."