25th Anniversary: Friday Night Celebrations at Nailcote Hall

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Pretty well the whole 1987 F.A.Cup Senior Squad and Management as well as most of the committee of CCFPA enjoyed a fantastic reunion in celebration of the Coventry City FC’s enormous achievement in bringing back the F.A.Cup to Coventry after beating Tottenham Hotspur 3-2 at Wembley in May 1987 in one of the best ever Cup Finals. The event, which had taken months of planning by the Squad’s ‘Sky Blue ’87 Association’ (headed up by CCFPA’s committee men Kevin Heffernan and Dave Bennett – also, of course, one of the Sky Blues’ scorers in the final) took place in the elegant surroundings of 17th century Nailcote Hall, Berkswell on Friday 20th April 2012.

The players and their families and guests arrived early afternoon and many of them tried out the internationally renowned par 3 Golf course at the venue before preparing for the evening’s Celebration Dinner. Squad members in attendance (spot them in the picture below) included:-

Brian Borrows, Paul Culpin, Greg Downs, Dean Emerson, Jake Findlay, Micky Gynn, Keith Houchen, Lloyd McGrath, Steve Ogrizovic, Trevor Peake, David Phillips, Nick Pickering, Cyrille Regis and Steve Sedgley. The only notable absentees from the Cup Final Team who could not make it were Brian Kilcline and Graham Rodger (all the squad are Association members).

Before 7.00pm the other Dinner guests (including a good representation from CCFC, local media and from CCFPA) mingled in the Hotel’s bar outside of the large marquee (below) where the Dinner was to take place all eager to reminisce about their memories of the wonderful time the Club’s success brought to Coventry 25 years ago.

Every table in the sumptuously dressed Nailcote marquee were joined by a 1987 squad member and partner. There were many Association ties in evidence around the room! At the top table were CCFC’s 1987 management duo John Sillett and George Curtis and guests (including CCFC’s John Clarke) along with the F.A.Cup once more decked out in the Sky Blue colours. CCFPA committee members (Jim Brown, Mike Young, Bob Eales, Bob Bromage, Frank Pritchard and Jim Cox) were joined by Greg Downs and his wife who entertained us with many stories of Greg’s playing days especially at the Highfield Road club.

CCFPA Vice Chair Billy Bell was co-master of ceremonies with BBC CWR’s Stuart Linnell who has had a long and close association with all things CCFC. Billy and Stuart kept the evening swinging along interspersing (between the courses of a tasty five course meal) interviews with many of the playing stars of Cup Final Day as they gathering of nearly 500 also watched video excerpts of the team’s 1986-87 F.A.Cup run as well as the magical scenes back in a City bedecked in sky blue when over a quarter of a million people gathered to see the triumphant return of the team atop a sky blue double-decker.

David Phillips & Stuart

Lloyd McGrath & Billy

Former snooker player Willie Thorne was in attendance and kindly led the auction of Sky Blue F.A.Cup memorabilia (including Benno’s goalscoring boots) which raised a generous sum in aid of CCFPA and the Sky Blue ’87 Association. After the meal players and quests enjoyed (and some danced to) the music of Rang-a-Tang. The reminiscing and conversation went on long into the night and the next morning in the Nailcote Hotel’s Bar (and, allegedly, three members of the CCFPA committee did not get to bed until after 4pm)!

Lloyd,Oggie,Paul,Dave,Brian & Trevor enjoying themselves

After a hearty breakfast the following day farewells were said and players and guests dispersed, although nine of the players as well as Oggie (who, of course, who had matchday/pitchside duties to perform) made their way to the Ricoh stadium for the club’s final Saturday home fixture against Doncaster where they were the guests of CCFPA and CCFC for lunch, being reunited for the first time in many years with seven members of the City’s victorious F.A Youth Cup Squad of 1987 which gave the Club a unique Cup double that year (see separate report on this site).

Members of CCFPA’s committee are pictured below with the F.A.Cup on the Ricoh pitch at half-time in this game. We hope to have more photographs of the Friday and Saturday night 25th Anniversary celebrations from this memorable weekend on the Galleries page of this website in due course.