The Coventry City Former Players Association was sad to hear that former CCFC reserve goalkeeper (albeit for a brief time) Bill Farmer passed away last Wednesday in Corby, age 87. CCFPA would like to send its condolences to Bill’s friends and family, especially to Bill’s younger brother CCFC Legend (and Association member) Ron Farmer.
Born in Guernsey along with Ron, the brothers were one of the few professional footballers to have come out of the Channel Islands. Bill cut his footballing teeth there with both St Martin’s FC and St Aubin’s FC. He then spent three seasons at Nottingham Forest, along with Ron, eventually making 58 first team appearances between the sticks between 1953-56. He had signed for non-league Brush Sports in Loughborough when Oldham Athletic came in for him in summer 1957 but he only had five first team outings for the Boundary Park club by the time he joined Worcester City for the 1958-59 season.
Ronnie Farmer
In the meantime in November 1958 brother Ron had been signed up from Forest by Bantam’s manager Billy Frith. Billy was persuaded to take a look at Bill as potential additional goalkeeping cover for the awesome Arthur Lightening and therefore brought him to Highfield Road in August 1959. In the event Bill only made a handful of reserve appearances for CCFC and he soon moved on to Corby Town where he retired in 1960.
Ron, of course, became a crucial part of Jimmy Hill’s transformation of the Club from the Bantams into the Sky Blues as they stormed the English league ladder during the nineteen sixties. Ron helped the Club out of the old Division Four in 1958-59 and continued to make his mark, building a reputation as a ‘penalty king’ right through to making his Division One debut in August 1967. In total he made well over 300 appearances for the Club before moving on to Notts.County in 1967, later returning to Highfield Road in a coaching capacity. Ron (at 78) still remains a very active member of the Association and we extend our sincere sympathies to him for his loss.