At the autumn Diamond Club lunch held today at the Ricoh Arena, the 197 members and guests were entertained by Sky Blues legend Willie Carr.
The main guest speaker of the day was held up in traffic after an accident on the M6, but he arrived just in time for lunch.
Before the lunch Joe Elliott spoke to former player Dietmar Bruck about his time as ambassador at the Ricoh Arena branch of Tescos, a role he retired from earlier this year. Joe also spoke to Ashley, who has replaced Dietmar at Tescos and she said tha his were big shoes to fill and he would be a hard act to follow.
Dietmar said he found the plight of the club unbelievable at the moment and he cannot see where the goals will come from with the current crop of players.
Joe then went on to mention that 2017 sees two important anniversaries for the club. The 30th anniversary of their famous 3-2 FA Cup win in 1987 against Spurs and the fiftieth anniversay of the late, great Jimmy Hill leading the club to promotion to Divison One, then the top division.
Ray Stephens was next to speak. Ray is the Diamond Club''s representative on the Supporters Consultation Group (SCG), b ut ha admitted to not having too much to report because of the change in their constitution which doesn''t allow questions about anything other than match day experiences. He did say that he had emailed both Joy Seppala and Tim Fisher inviting them to sign the Coventry Telegraph''s petition calling on Sisu to sell up and get out. As of yet neither Tim nor Joy have responded.
Ray mentioned the inefficiency of Ticket Master and the problems many supporters have experienced in getting tickets, some supporters have yet to receive their season tickets!
Ray said that three days before Chris Anderson left his job as CEO of the club, he attended a meeting of the SCG and gave no hint that he would be leaving his job.
Joe then spoke briefly to former City player David Busst, who now runs the Sky Blues in the Community. David spoke about the walking football initiative.
After the lunch had been served Joe spoke to Willie Carr. Willie told the club he was spotted by a scout while he was playing for Cambridge Schoolboys when he was 15. He joined the club as a schoolboy and spent much of his time working with the groundstaff.
His first game was as a second half substitute at Arsenal, but his full debut was at Highfield Road against Southampton.
Inevitably Willie was asked about the famous ''donkey kick'' goal against Everton. Willie flicked the ball up behind him with his heels and little Ernie Hunt volleyed the ball into the net to score the goal of the season. Speaking about the goal, Willie revealed that it had been tried numerous times in training and once previously in a match against Spurs. That time though Ernie Hunt connected with the ball and sent it high and wide into the stand at White Hart Lane and almost hit the large clock that used to hang high in the stand.
Wille recalled that the game was the first time Match of the Day was recorded in colour, but the cameraman still nearly missed the goal, but than again, he wasn''t the only one.
Willie told the story of how he came to leave Coventry City. Gordon Milne was manager at the time and he called Willie into his office to tell him that Wolves had made an approach for him. Wille had a medical at Wolves but he failed it as it showed the start of arthritis in his knee. The move collapsed, but on transfer deadline day, Wolves came back again with another offer and Wille left Coventry.
In total, Willi Carr played 298 games and scored 37 goals for Coventry City.
Billy Bell then joined Joe and Willie told a few jokes, some of which are too rude to repeat here.
It was announced that the next Legends day will be held on April 8th when Coventry City host Peterborough.
Next to speak was Ian Davidson who runs the London Supporters Club, which celebrates its 40th anniversary on November 14th. Ian also runs the Sky Blue International Supporters Club which has 350 members. Some are expat Coventry fans living abroad but others who have come to hear about the club through such diverse reasons as having been given a Coventry City Subbuteo team as a present to one Swiss supporter who was taken to see Coventry City play Arsenal at Highbury, a game City lost 5-1, but the gentleman was so impressed by the noise that the 1500 City supporters made in total contrast to the comparative silence from the 40,000 Gooners, he decided to follow City and each year he travels from Switzerland to attend at least two games a season.
There was a raffle and bingo to finish off what was a very enjoyable afternoon.
Pictures copyright of CNS Sport. Credit: Pete Chambers BEM