Any more Coventry City pre 1945 programmes out there?

Above are some front page images of Coventry City programme fronts from 1906-1914 when the Club graced the Southern League prior to getting elected into the Football league in 1919. 

Association Chairman Jim Brown and Membership Secretary Mike Young are continuing to build up a digital archive of the City/Sky Blues oldest programmes (up to the end of WW2 in 1945). The aim is to make as complete as possible a permanent record of the Club’s pre World War II programmes in digital images to provide a publicly available resource about the players, events and stats of the early years of the club for the education and entertainment of players, fans and researchers alike. Some of the images, with more details of the games they covered, are gradually being published on the ‘Programmes’ page of this site!!

Have you got any pre 1945 City programmes?  Several of our readers happily responded to an earlier request and we have therefore uncovered a number of  ‘old programme gems’ of the past but we hope there may still be others out there lurking in attics, drawers and scrapbooks of our members, collectors or the wider public of readers of this web site. If you have one and it fills a gap in our collection we would like to take an image via scan or photocopy. Do you have, for example) any that look like these published from 1919- 1925

Programmes from 1929-33

We do hope that some of our FPA members and Associate Members will be able to protect a bit more of the club’s important heritage for posterity and in doing so help make the Club’s (and your) history come alive again!

Marcus the Man for Reading

We are delighted to announce that the Association’s special guest at the next home game against Reading on Saturday 24th September will be own very recent home grown Sky Blue star and ‘Coventry kid’ Marcus Hall. 

Marcus in 1999!

Marcus, who joined the Sky Blues from Coventry Schools in 1992 as an apprentice and quickly rose to the ranks of first team professional debuting in the Premier league against Spurs in December 1994 and subsequently became an England Under 21 and ‘B’ International, will be coming back to the Ricoh to see how the latest crop of Sky Blue youngsters (like Cyrus Christie and Gael Bigirimana) are faring.

Ever popular in various defensive roles Marcus appeared over 150 times in his first period with the Sky Blues before leaving in 2002 and after very short spells with Nottingham Forest and Southampton settled at Stoke City where he clocked up over 80 appearances for the Potteries outfit.  Marcus returned to the Coventry club’s new home at the Ricoh in 2005 and doubled his overall appearances total at CCFC to 307 first team games (5 goals).  Leaving City for a second time in 2010 Marcus spent last season with Northampton Town (since being released). Most recently Marcus turned out in Sky Blue colours once more in the Serco Midland Masters 6 a side tournament.

Look out for Marcus around and about the stadium, on the pitch at half-time, contributing match analysis on the local radio (CWR*) and in the G-Casino after the game next Saturday. Welcome Marcus!

*as usual ‘our very own’ CCFPA committee member Dave Bennett will be doing a similar job on Mercia sound!

To All Associate members of the Association (Present & Future)

Thanks to all those Associate Members (AMs) of CCFPA who have renewed their subscription in the last week or so. Thanks very much for continuing to help underpin the hard work of the Association and its committee of volunteers! Maintaining your support is much appreciate and assists us develop the number and quality of events and activities we are able undertake on behalf of the Former Players of CCFC.

There are still a number of existing AMs who have not yet renewed. If you have forgotten so to do there is still time to send the Membership Secretary, Mike Young, your £10 membership renewal (all cheques to be made payable to ‘CCFPA’) or give it to one of our committee members at one of the next two home games (against Reading and Blackpool).

If you intend to send a cheque please email Mike at m.young9@ntlworld.com and he will send you the appropriate address to post the cheque to.  If any AM would prefer not to renew Mike would also be grateful for an email informing him and he will remove the AM’s details from our membership records.

If there are any fans of CCFC who are not yet Associate Members but would like to join please email Mike and he will send you the membership form to complete (or you can print one off from this website and send it to the Membership Secretary at the address given on the form).  Remember, Membership costs £10 p.a. and gives you a membership badge, a 10 page multicolour newsletter at least 3 times a year and discounts on Association goods (e.g. membership tie), activities and events. We aim to bring AMs as close as possible to news about and meetings with their Sky Blue and Bantam favourites of the last fifty years.  We look forward to hearing from you!

G-Casino Pitches in Continued CCFPA Sponsorship

The Association would like to give sincere thanks to G-Casino for maintaining their strong links with CCFPA by marking the donation of a substantial sum in support of our work with a presentation on Saturday last at the home game with Derby County. G-Casino’s Customer Services Manager Quentin Kozma  (left) is pictured below on the pitch at half-time presenting a cheque for the magnificent sum of £1000 to CCFPA (represented by playing legend Ronnie Farmer) .

We have long held a strong association with the proprietors of the Casino at the Ricoh and we regularly use the stage at ‘Lady Gs’ to enable fans to welcome the Association’s special guest(s) after each home game.  Judged by their strong attendance and enthusiastic welcome regularly given to all our guests City fans clearly set great store by this high quality venue which has been made available to the Association-  and can we also congratulate Paul and Quentin of G-Casino on the fantastic upgrade they have recently made to the facilities in Lady Gs!  Less well known may be the fact thatt the G-Casino management also provide considerable support for the Association’s Annual Golf Day as well as hosting CCFPA’s Committee meetings for which we are also grateful.

Quentin is also pictured (left) with Association member and Sky Blue star Brian ‘Harry’ Roberts repeating the presentation after the Derby game on the stage of Lady G’s (which has recently received substantial investment from G-Casino in being refurbished for the new season).  

There have been many memorable evenings spent there in recent times, especially after our Legends Days each year and perhaps most memorably in recent times last year’s celebrations surrounding the commemoration of the Sky Blues’ 1970-71 EUFA Cup squad with Trakia Plovdiv’s Dinko Dermendjiev a special guest from overseas and equally memorably the unveiling of Jimmy Hill‘s statue earlier this season with the maestro (and the Association’s Billy Bell) leading a stirring rendition of the Sky Blue Song.