DIAMOND CLUB AGM 19TH MARCH 2009
Coventry City Diamond Club held their Annual General Meeting and lunch this afternoon at the Ricoh Arena.
Over 150 members and guests attended the event, which started with the AGM.
This saw a welcoming speech from Chairman Tom Dentith with the minutes of the last AGM read out by Secretary Alf Abbey.
The Diamond Club had nine Committee Meetings and four lunches in the last year with 150 attending the last AGM who were able to meet Coventry City Chairman Ray Ranson as well as Ron Farmer, Norman Pilgrim, Kev Monks, Lionel Bird and Coventry Music Historian Pete Chambers.
The Summer Meeting with its Ladies Day at Ascot theme was attended by 132 members and guests. With George the bookie and the races on the big screen, no money was won but everyone enjoyed the day and the hats worn by many of the female members were superb.
On October 2nd, Coventry City manager Chris Coleman and Steve Kean were the guest speakers in front of an audience of 160. A good question and answer session was enjoyed by everyone who attended including a member from Australia.
The Christmas Party on December 4th was attended by 179 members and guests and saw a performance by the Coventry Blue Coat Choir in front of Diamond Club President and Lady President John and Jean Sillett. Guest speakers on the day included ACL's Daniel Gidney, Nathan Kosky and Bob Wesson.
Treasurer Maureen O'Neill revealed that the accounts showed a small profit which would help to sustain the club over the coming year. The cost of the meals had increased but thanks to Joe Elliott who has done so much for the Diamond Club, increases will only rise by a pound.
The Election Of Officers saw Chairman Tom Dentith and Committee Members Barbara Cassey and Alan Bateman re-elected to the Committee for another three years which will be kept at its current ten members. However, there is now provision for more members to help the Committee when the need arises.
From April, membership will rise to a one off payment of £5.
The AGM closed and it was onto the lunch and the guest speakers.
The Diamond Club prides itself on its guest speakers and today was no exception. First up was Marcus Hall.
Marcus said that he enjoyed playing against Chelsea and found it a great experience.
Speaking to Joe Elliott, he talked about his time at City's Youth team from 1992-1994 when every player had to stay at the Lodge at Ryton even if like him they came from Coventry.
Earning £29.50 a week, he played under Trevor Gould and won the Floodlit Youth Cup beating Leicester who had Emile Heskey in their side in the Final.
He admitted that he never wanted to leave City and as soon as he was able to, got the Stoke Chairman to agree to him leaving and re-joined Coventry.
This year is Marcus' testimonial season and the first event is a race night at the Isle Of Capri Casino on Tuesday night. Marcus said it was his birthday that night so he did not know what his organising committee had planned.
On his testimonial match, he said that this would be in August the week before the start of the season and in the next few week, he hoped the opposition would be in place.
Marcus also closed by saying that he was very pleased to be offered a new deal by the club.
Nathan Kosky's City's Commercial Director said that things were going well off the field. The recent up turn in form off the pitch has helped bring in interest from businesses and companies.
The big push is on with season tickets and the club are hoping to increase the numbers from last year. He added that it was the money from season tickets that is being used to fund the buying of new players.
We then moved onto our main guest speakers for the afternoon. Today, the speakers were Academy boss Gregor Rioch and players Adam Walker and Curtis Wynter.
Gregor spoke about his playing career which included spells at Luton, Peterborough, Hull, Macclesfield, Shrewsbury before he dipped into non-league and then coaching.
It is nearly two years since he was appointed as Director of City's Academy and said that the Alan Higgs Centre where the Academy are based had a great indoor facility and some excellent grass pitches.
He admitted that last season was difficult and the production of players into the first team squad which is the main function of the Academy had only seen two players get a professional contract.
This season , three have been offered professional contracts and two of those - Curtis Wynter and Adam Walker. The seventeen year olds have been with the club since they were eight years old and said how good it was to train with the first team twice a week.
There was news today, that Chris Coleman is considering starting a couple of Academy players if the team are in a safe position Adam, who coaches City's U8's thought it would be good if a couple of Academy players were on the pitch at the same time as it would show the younger players what could be achieved.
Both players will be part of the first team squad next season as well as being eligible to play for the U18's as an overage player and will use the summer to keep fit.
City U18's are a few points behind Tottenham in the FA Academy League Group B table and one point behind Aston Villa. Joe Elliott praised Gregor for some superb results this season which have seen the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City beaten whilst a draw at Arsenal who have qualified for the FA Youth Cup Semi-Final.
Gregor said that the best result however, was Academy players making their first team debuts as that will be remembered longer than any result.
On the younger age groups, things look good with good players from the U16's and U15's coming through.
All three received a tremendous round of applause before City old boys Ronnie Farmer and Dietmar Bruck spoke about the Former Players Associiation and the raffle ended what had been a highly enjoyable afternoon. 
More on the Diamond Club can be found here
http://ccfcdiamondclub.homestead.com/index.html