CCFC Programme Corner-17: Season 1926-27 – Aberdare Athletic No Match For CCFC Home (& Especially Away)

1926-27 front cover

In the next in an irregular series we present images of Coventry City programmes and memorabilia through the years. CCFPA chairman Jim Brown and committee member Mike Young have been building up a collection of full programme images from CCFC issues pre-1945.  All images are taken from the collection and copyright CCFPA (and must not be reproduced without permission).

CCFC spent season 1925-26 in the Northern Section of the Third Division – their one and only experience of appearing in this regionalised league. Depending upon who had been relegated from Division Two the regional balance between D3N and D3S could only be maintained at the expense of some Midland’s clubs transferring across and it was City’s turn, it was decided, to return to its more natural southern section.

Home programmes from this season are pretty scarce (we are aware of only eight games so far) so there are many gaps in our collection of images. This season’s programme design copied the previous season’s with only the date on the front changed, once again being of ‘normal’ size.   The ‘official organ’ remains priced at two-pence (old money) but for twelve pages (reduced from 16 last season). It repeats the nice engraving (by Coventry Engraving & Advertising Services Ltd.) of the Coventry Three Spires amidst a Cityscape plus an inset of the civic badge (with elephant). Half of the front page is taken up with an advert for ‘Mitchells & Butlers’ beer.

Former CCFC player James Kerr is still in the gaffer’s chair and the club President remains Alderman Fred Lee (now the Lord Mayor). Another Alderman Frank Snape shared the Vice Presidents’ role with Harry Smith of local car manufacturer Rover. The five man Board of Directors was again chaired by W.Carpenter and also included former goalkeeper Harry Whitehouse who played for both Singers and CCFC in the Birmingham League days and before (from 1896-1911)

The club’s programme featured today is a bit of an oddity and very collectible.

First, the club’s opponents were a now defunct Welsh team, Aberdare Athletic who, though founded in 1893, lasted only until 1928 before collapsing. They finished bottom of D3S in 1926-27 and controversially failed to gain re-election after only six seasons in the Football League being replaced by Torquay United. City had beaten them in Wales the previous Saturday by an overwhelming 7-0 (goals from Alec McClure, Jack Crisp, Billy Bird, Fred ‘Cute’ Herbert, Robert Ferguson and a brace from Jimmy Heathcote). The crowd was a paltry 3,797!

Second, because the club had a number of home fixtures over Easter 1927 the programme editor decided to produce a multiple issue (though no bigger at 12 pages) to cover the period April 16th-19th. Therefore there were probable team sheets not only for the Aberdare game on Tuesday 19th but also two London Combination games featuring the Reserves in the London Combination against Cardiff on Saturday 16th and Leicester City on Monday 18th.  As if this was not enough potential strain on the staff at Highfield Road, and the pitch itself (not to mention the wallets of the paying customers) there was also a team sheet for the traditional annual Easter Monday morning Midland Daily Cup Final. This season the finalists were Bedworth Town and Warwick Town (Warwick won 6-2).

April 19th 1927 Coventry City 1-0 Aberdare Athletic (attendance 10,896)

Given the stunning victory in Wales the previous Saturday the 10,000+ Highfield Road crowd must have been disappointed that the City could only score once against them at home! Coventry City’s goalscorer in the 40th minute was centre forward Billy Bird.

The double page team spread for the first team game and the two and half additional pages for the team details for the other three games as well as a page each for the codes for the announcement of half time scores on the three dates meant that a lot of the normal programme features were curtailed or postponed for this issue.

There is a page or so of notes ‘From The Boardroom’ with some fairly bland comments on the Easter programme, recent results and welcoming Aberdare for their first visit to Coventry. The CCFC Supporters Club and it ‘penny on the ball’ matchday competition to raise funds was also given a shout.

One interesting feature was the announcement that at City’s next (penultimate) home fixture on the 23rd April against Exeter City  there would be pre-match ‘Community Singing’ (arranged by the Birmingham Gazette) involving a ‘Splendid Military Band’ and ‘Six Loud Speakers’ to encourage the crowd (around 10,000 it transpired) to sing ‘The More We Are Together‘. Forty years later Jimmy Hill worked a similar idea! As last season there is room for a  curious full page ad for the ‘Alexandra Picture House’ which incorporates a timing calendar for the game.

There is no room for the usual report of the fixtures and results of the club’s teams and what little advertising remains is concentrated mostly on the inside cover pages and around the teams. The tem’s performance this season was almost identical to last season’s sojourn in the Northern section so seems to have made little difference apart from netter income from larger away crowds and less travelling expenses!

Season 1926-27  Final Table P.42 W.15 D.7 L.20 F.71-86A Pts.37 Pos.15th/22

See next time’s article about another Division Three South season in 1927-28!

If anyone knows the whereabouts of any other CCFC home programme from this season we would be eager to hear from you!

Some of these featured programmes can be seen in more detail by clicking our ‘Progs’ tab (at top).  There are still lots of gaps which you may be able to help fill so if you have any prewar programme – home or away – of City games, the earlier the better, we would be grateful if you could let Mike Young know what you have got so he can check whether it fills a hole in our database (for his contact email see contacts page) . If it is, then he will make arrangements with you to get it scanned or photocopied as appropriate.