The Spring Diamond Club lunch, held today at the Ricoh, was attended by nearly 200 members.
Before the lunch, the Annual General Meeting was held and those committee members up for re-election were unanimously re-elected on a show of hands. In addition, John Orton and David Birch were elected as replacement committee members for those who chose not to stand for re-election.
Joe Elliott MBE interviewed Pete Chambers BEM, who spoke of his amazement at being honoured with the British Empire Medal and admitted to being “really chuffed”. Pete, the founder and curator of the Coventry Music Museum spoke of the exciting times ahead in Coventry music wise with the Boomtown rats headlining the Godiva festival and Bruce Springsteen playing at the Ricoh Arena in June. Pete cheekily wondered whether to issue an invite to Bruce to visit the Coventry Music Museum.
Joe then interviewed was the former Diamond Club chairman Tom Denteith. Tom has been invited to the Queen’s 90th birthday party in The Mall in June. Tom has been tirelessly and quietly working hard in a voluntary capacity for the Fisherman’s Mission, former known as The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen and was because of this work that Tom was invited to the party.
After lunch, Joe interviewed the former Coventry City player Andy Blair. Andy, a graduate of the club’s Academy, played for the Sky Blues from 1978 to 1981, he now owns and runs his own business, Andy Blair Sports & Schoolwear, in Coventry and has supplied, at cost, the Diamond Club with their club ties and ladies scarves.
Andy, who was born in Scotland but brought up in Bedworth, grew up watching and supporting Coventry City then joining the Academy before being offered a professional contract with the club. He said it was a privilege to play for his hometown club. Andy paid tribute to the late Jimmy Hill, who was chairman at the time he was a player. Andy said that his favourite manager was Gordon Milne, who managed the club between 1974 and 1981, he described Milne as a true gentleman. Blair enthused over the team under Milne, a team that included the likes of Tommy Hutchinson, Mick Ferguson, Ian Wallace, Terry Yorath, Graham Oakey, Bobby MacDonald and Jim Blyth.
Andy also thought that Highfield Road was one of the finest grounds in the country and paid tribute to the ground staff of the time. He was very positive about the future of the club, which, he admitted had been in decline, but he know believes is finally on the up.
The final guest of the day was the Chief Executive Officer of the club, Chris Anderson. Chris took over the reins after the departure of Steve Waggott last November. Chris opened his speech to the assembled members by asking, “What can I tell you about Coventry City Football Club?” a rhetorical question to those fans who each have supported the club for 50 years or more.
Chris said he felt incredibly lucky to have the job at Coventry City. He said it had been a privilege to meet the people from outside the club in the city community. He emphasised that the club is now in his own words, ‘in a very good way’ and that it was a wonderful club to work for. He praised the organisation of the recent Jimmy Hill memorial service in the cathedral last month, saying it was a wonderful and moving event.
Chris then went on to talk about the importance of the football club to the city and the community. He identified three areas that he saw as vital for the success of the club. Firstly, he said the club needed to be a high performing sports club. Secondly, as a business it needed to be like all other businesses and make money through being run properly and efficiently and selling a high quality product. Thirdly as a community institution with the Sky Blues in the Community and Academy being at the forefront of promoting the club.
Mr Anderson said that if the club thrives, the community would also thrive. He said the club is having a good season despite the recent dip in form and performance on the pitch and was confident that if the club did not achieve promotion this season, it would do so next season.
He said the accounts had been filed on time, that off the field the club was doing well, and that at last it was a self-sustaining business. He was far from complacent though and admitted that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and reiterated that to be successful will take time. He spoke of the time when Jimmy Hill first came to the club it took a lot of hard work and some time to achieve success.
He used the phrase that Tony Mowbray used that it was a priority to get out of ‘this wretched division’.
Joe asked whether Chris preferred the academic or practical aspect of his career, to which Chris said he preferred doing the practical work rather than teaching. He praised the football management team of Tony Mowbray and Mark Venus, saying they were doing very well.
He then spoke of the commercial side of the club stating that generally there was now nothing wrong that cannot be fixed, but each problem needed to be worked on one at a time. He said it was his aim to leave the club in a far better position than when he arrived.
Joe then asked the prickly question about the ownership of the ground. He questioned the different positions of the owner Joy Seppala, who had previously stated that it was vital for the success of the club to own its own ground and his own opinion that it was not vital for the club to own its own ground and that the club could work with the stadium’s owners, Wasps RUFC.
Chris Anderson said that the club needs to control its own destiny but it was his opinion either that the club could do so as a tenant or if it owned its own ground. He admitted that currently the club was not in control of its own destiny and that it needed a long term home, but he did not think it mattered too much whether that was as owners or as tenants. He emphasised that the Ricoh was built for Coventry City Football Club, the seats are sky blue, there is a statue of Jimmy Hill outside the stadium and that there is a memorial garden within the grounds. He did admit that there is a lot of work that needs to be done on the question of a ground before the club would be in control of its destiny. He stated that the club needed to work closely with the council to achieve a successful outcome.
It was announced that Jimmy Hill’s ashes would be spread in the extended memorial garden 2 hours before the kick off in the vital end of season game against Sheffield United on Saturday 30th April.
Finally, Joe auctioned of two donated items, a book by Gary Imlac and a rare bottle of red wine in a commemorative Highfield Road bottle that had been donated by Ann McDowell. The funds were given to the Diamond Club.
The next Diamond Club lunch will be held on Thursday 16th June.
Pictures courtesy of Pete Chambers BEM